He filmed all this months ago. He's releasing them spread out as to not disrupt the algorithm, which makes a lot of sense. Who knows what castles he already reviewed and is yet to edit and release!
Shad needs to talk more about the nun-chuck holes used to thwart attackers. Nun-chuck kill zones between the inner and outer walls were known to be very effective.
I am really glad you filmed all this and edited it but didn't upload it all at once. I love castles, I love watching you live one of your dreams and share it. But moderation is not just for health. I hope there are more for the coming year.
Shad, this is such a great video. If you ever visit another castle can you please have cuts with the floor plan/ overhead view of the castle and point out where you are standing from? This would add so much to understanding exactly where and what each position of the castle is designed to defend.
Another great video of one of my local and favourite castles, thank you! When you note the different materials used in reconstruction and preservation you are actually highlighting some important preservation best practice; When reconstructing historical sites, whilst it's crucial to try and replicate the original structures as closely as possible, it's also best practice to deliberately use different, newer materials to clearly distinguish between the original and the restored sections. This approach might involve a layer of differently typed stones or employing modern mortar, stone, and even concrete where necessary. The goal is to preserve the site while also making the timeline of construction and restoration clear. This method ensures that future generations can understand the castle's history and the extent of modern interventions. 🏴🇬🇧 P.S; I agree with JoshuaFoy, that would add some very useful clarity - pointing out where the features you are looking at and explaining/exploring on a plan map of the castle would assist in understanding what is where. 😊 thanks again!
Google Maps is good enough for the job - maps.app.goo.gl/m74QvCkzW1p2D7iA8 - great hall is the big square thing to the south of main site. Streetview may help as well - maps.app.goo.gl/m74QvCkzW1p2D7iA8 = there are quite a few photo spheres about. - maps.app.goo.gl/CSaKQxe9oSaD4fwX9 This is from me knowing the area i could be talking out of my arse here..... To the South is Cardiff and a port on a large plan. This is 1 valley in from the sea or the route you would go to avoid local plan The Castle is East West as there is a pass to Nantgarw to the east and then on newport way to the south. There is a valley up to blackwood to the north. Its a fair sized plane for the valleys and natural choke points. The Taff and Rhymney rivers would have made good choke points to cross so situation is good for defending and keeping an eye on those points. I can imagine that the bit between cardiff and newport would be marshy way back and this might have been a nicer route for some of the year west. The area was extensively settled in victorian times for the coal so there is a lot of development. But the river Taff to the West has been settled since the Neolithic, iron age and used to have Anglo Saxon forts, Norman mottle and bailey and later castles over crossing of the taff.
@@shadiversity perhaps you could do some of the existing english castles you visited, being able to do 3d view would help explain some of the features/points in these castle videos....
I love how shad coming to the UK turns him into a kid in a candy store. As a Brit, I've been lucky enough to go to many places like Corfe, Chepstowe and many others. Even my local museum is a repurposed castle. Sometimes I take these things for granted, and it's refreshing to see someone so enthused by the ability to just see a castle
@@andypughtube My local castle, as a child, was an intact Roman fort. Portchester castle was a Saxon Shore fort and still has its original walls. You get a good view of it if you catch the ferry from Portsmouth to France
I guess Brits do take having castles nearby for granted, not really their fault. Australians, Kiwis, Canadians, and Americans don't really have very old buildings or castles and our references are all from pictures and film. The oldest "castle" we have here in the US is the Castillo de San Marcos in Florida, which is an early modern Spanish bastion fort which is definitely an awesome era in history but not a medieval castle.
Slate roofing is a common design choice not only for castles but for common housing still used today. Slate is a very common stone type available in Wales and it is very effective at dealing with the high rainfall! ... as well as many types of projectile I should imagine.
I am from Caerphilly my whole family from Caerphilly county borough. We went here all the time, for school trips and general days outs. Also Cardiff castle and castell coch. Great castles. I'm a big medieval nerd and I guess I always took living so close to great medieval monuments for granted
I visited when I was just about 12 years old and I was beyond jealous. I could not believe people lived in houses smack up against a medieval wall while I had to fly across the ocean to see anything older than a couple hundred years (in America)
Yeah I also took it for granted that there are a lot of medieval buildings and a lot of medieval markets in my area as i live in Germany. It is pretty useful as a history fan!
Always good to see Caerphilly in one of your videos. I never see many people acknowledge the existence of Wales online, let alone the amazing castles. And seeing something relatively local is nice too.
Online or offline, most just think Wales is somewhere near Germany. On St Patrick's day I wear my WRU jersey while lobbing coal and singing Tom Jones songs to help bring a little Wales to my oblivious fellow Americans...
Hi Shad, I have a potential answer to what the small room with the window overlooking the gatehouse chamber/solar/hall, with the fireplace and windows at 18:16, is for, or its design intention. So lots of castles have a kind of raised viewing space for primarily the women of the castle, for instance, the ladies, or maybe daughters to overlook social events, gatherings, or meetings without being seen/noticed from a comfortable space; and to allow the lady and or lord to kind of survey ahead of time who was in the overlooked space, like guests before entering themselves, to prepare or decide whether grant an audience. There is a similar overlook at Dover Castle in the great hall/throne room of the keep that actually has two, one overlooking from behind the throne, accessed from the hallway off the primary stairwell deeper in the castle, and the second one, lower though still raised and off to the side, accessed from a side passage between the hall and a private chappeland back corridor into the adjoining hall/private arias of the castle. I learned about these private viewing chambers being designed for the women and master of the castle when I studied castles for a semester last year at uni.
@Roman_Eagle, It could be that the gatehouse ‘hall’ was a chapel and the overlooking small chamber was where the lord and lady would attend from, out of sight of the lower status soldiery/commoners.
That's very interesting. The ones in Dover even seem like they are tailor-made for different groups - like maybe the one behind the throne was intended only for the king and close confidantes, and the side gallery was the women's area. I'm not sure the exact extent to which men and women were separated in 12th century society, but I do know that sufficiently wealthy husbands and wives would maintain separate households within the same residence. I wonder if they only really mixed at specific times, and so having separate viewing galleries would further facilitate that.
Among my top 5 castles, ever. Many decades ago, I based a D&D castle on Caerphilly Castle. It was only vulnerable from air attack, dragons. But with some redesign with air defenses, it was near impregnable.
I've not yet done it with a castle, but I recently updated an old dungeon by adding a disused farmhouse / small manor house above it, based on a medieval house in North Wales (Penarth Fawr).
watch Shad geek out about castles? say no more i click edit: respect to the guy at 9:00 for quietly backing out of the shot, looks like Shad didn't even notice him until editing xD
Absolutely wonderful to watch you visit this castle for the first time that you saw from far away until then. And thanks for the knowledge you offer as well
Another great video of one of my local and favourite castles, thank you! When you note the different materials used in reconstruction and preservation you are actually highlighting some important preservation best practice; When reconstructing historical sites, whilst it's crucial to try and replicate the original structures as closely as possible, it's also best practice to deliberately use different, newer materials to clearly distinguish between the original and the restored sections. This approach might involve a layer of differently typed stones or employing modern mortar, stone, and even concrete where necessary. The goal is to preserve the site while also making the timeline of construction and restoration clear. This method ensures that future generations can understand the castle's history and the extent of modern interventions. 🏴🇬🇧
Lord Shad continues his journey down history of medieval castles and seeing Shad talking about castles you can tell that he loves doing so due to him loving the history of these marvels of engineering that were part of the old world.
Caerphilly castle is truly one of the most massive and technical castles Ive ever visited in the UK .... It also has its own collection of siege weapons.. Its a brute, the hoardings ive always previously been regarded as fighting galleries. 🧙♂️
Been there a couple of times and it is magnificent. So happy that you offered more info and details. I had lived in the UK for 10 years and visited some other iconic castles. This video made me feel nostalgic.
I am so excited to read your book. I got it for Christmas, and so far it’s an awesome read. Thank you for your awesome channel and amazing supporters for making this year great.
It's a bit silly to bring up since I know Shad isn't like this, but I really have to say how much I appreciate Shad not decrying the renovations being done. You know there is some web-brained moron who's out there angry that isn't not all original and authentic or whatever. I just appreciate how he acknowledges the renovations being done, shows how you can tell, and even if there's changes, such as the arrow slit into a window, not getting all up in arms over it. They, of course, have to renovate to maintain it for future renovations. Considering how often castles were besieged, among other disasters, I'd be very surprised it all of the castle was completely original anyway. I especially noticed that with the hoardings for simply pointing out that the floor wasn't correct, but of course it's not as it still needs to be safe for the public. Also, good on those maintain the castle for trying to maintain such authenticity with their renovations. Doing what's needed to maintain it but still acknowledging how it would've once been. It makes me wonder though, when it however many decades they have to completely renovate the stonework before it collapses, will they eventually just completely rebuilding the castle? Again, not mind-boggling praise as it just requires only a slight modicum of common sense, but that seems to be in such short supply nowadays I just felt inclined to mentioned it. Thanks Shad!
I’d agree they are web-brained morons if they can’t reason a few bits of rebar and concrete to keep historic places from total degradation. There’s no shortage of ruins lol.
A lot of the British castles are ruins because they were deliberately "slighted" during the civil war, to prevent them being re-used by the opposition. Some possibly more than once.
Some people take their love of "originality" too far. They'd rather see a pile of "original" stone left untouched in ruins, whereas a reasonable enthusiast would much rather see those stones carefully relaid with cosmetically period appropriate materials and techniques, and restored to their original condition.
The Butes owned the castle for a couple of hundred years. During the Great Depression the mines suffered huge unemployment and the Earl put many of them to work on restoring his castles (Cardiff, Castell Coch, Caerphilly, etc). After the war the family moved back to their ancestral home in Scotland leaving Cardiff Castle to the City Corporation, and Castell Coch and Caerphilly to the central government. Today, CADW administers and manages the latter pair on behalf of the state. CADW is currently renovating the Great Hall at Caerphilly (as Shad says) and this work is due to be completed in 2024. Modern restorations are much more sympathetic to the original conditions - using mortar instead of cement, not using iron braces which expand when wet, etc.
I don't think most people realize just how much timber was used in the construction and daily operation of castles. A forest was needed as much as a quarry! 😊
Well this is a nice late present for Christmas. It does raise some questions in my head such as what the hell did the Welsh think of some Aussie in medieval garb walking around with a sword and scabbard. An Aussie giving all the enthusiasm like an overstimulated cat on catnip. *edit* Actually, watching the video a bit more I am surprised that Shad was fine walking around with his sword. Usually that would result in a talking to by the police, at the very least.
Genuinly shocked me when I open my TH-cam feed and see one of my favourite youtubers visiting my local castle. Great video as always. A recommendation of a visit if you're in the area would be Castle Coch
Regarding those hoardings they don’t look remotely big enough to allow a long bowman to properly draw and shoot from. Joe Gibbs and Tod from Todd Workshop recently tried shooting from stop battlements and the room required for drawing and aiming was quite astounding actually.
The slots at 9:25 look significantly wider than those at 3:54. It seems to me that stones small enough to drop through those narrower gaps wouldn't effectively injure invaders wearing helmets. And as Tod's Workshop demonstrated in a recent episode, shooting an arrow downward is very difficult for biomechanical reasons. Crossbows would work better, but they're slow to fire unless you have a reloading team. Taking the above into consideration, plus the fact that the gatehouse is an enclosed space, I think that what they would actually drop in that spot is powdered quicklime. It's cheap, easy to transport and store in sacks, it doesn't require a fire to heat up like dropping hot sand or boiling oil, and best of all, because the gatehouse provides some shelter from the wind, it would linger in the air, blinding anyone trying to get through. All in all, a very efficient weapon to use in a chokepoint like that.
I think you're underestimating just how hard even a modest cobblestone sized rock would hit when dropped from fifty feet up. Armour can't protect against blunt force trauma very well, even if the helmet does resist the impact you still have concussion or neck injuries to worry about.
@@WJS774 I think you're overestimating it. Look at the size of the stones they're depicted dropping from the hoardings at 22:36 Would they be carrying ones that big up there if fist-sized rocks would do the job? Modern soldiers wear helmets primarily to protect against shrapnel and debris falling down on their head that's been launched into the air by explosions. Plus unless you manage to drop the rock perfectly straight down (which you're not going to reliably do in a hurry), the rocks will lose energy/lethality bouncing off the walls of those thin slots, and maybe even get stuck. They'd need to score more or less a direct hit on the top of someone's head to have a chance of injuring them. Are they going to measure hundreds or thousands of rocks to make sure they aren't too big? Or just dump sacks of powder and not worry about it?
@@trogdor8764 The problem I see, is that they basically have not field of view. You would have to wait for an enemy to move below the slit and hope, that the stone would be down that hole faster than the guy moves away. The last one looks kinda practical, although it could be to close to the inner gate.
A lot of our british castles were not "restored" they were repurposed by the british military over time in a lot of cases. this all happened before we started doing grade listed building stuff to prevent them just ramming modern stuff in. When we do restoration work they try to replicate exactly what it would have been
I'd imagine all of these are pre recorded, but did you happen to visit Beeston castle as part of your trip? Alas I'd imagine the castle where I work would be of little interest but the tale of Beeston as well as Ranulf are an interesting tale nevertheless. The palantine of Cheshire has many a tale for those willing to delve into its history.
I'm certainly in the minority as I have no interest in fantasy, however when you are visiting real castles and talking about actual history in the context of where you are, I find your videos engaging.
This is exactly what I subscribed for: not only real medieval history, but 27+ minutes of nonstop, start-to-finish content (facts and analysis). For the same reason, even the previous (50+ minute) castle tour flew by so much faster than most of the recent videos (30+ minutes with 10-12 minutes of actual content constantly interrupted by 20 minutes of clowning for the fanbois).
I grew up and live in The Marches area and have visited Caerphilly many times. One of my favourites for sure, nice to see Shad waxing lyrical about it.
It's like watching a child in a toy store. This man clearly loves what he's doing and what he's seeing, and that just makes the video better. His positivity is infectious. I love the video.
i really like that you respect people's privacy enough to blur them out when needed. most people just film whoever they want and upload it. but yeah good work - it's not gone unnoticed.
These castle tours you have been doing are awesome. I want to visit these places so badly. I think these types of videos are where you are at your best. Thank you for entertaining and educating everyone! I will come visit your castles in Australia once you finish them!
I got to visit Caerphilly in '87 when I was stationed in England and part of the SCA. Loved being able to do an event there and get some idea on what it may have been like to live and work there. We had a feast in the great hall and found out that the clump of trees, across the moat on the southwestern side, were the remains of a Roman hillfort - outpost.
Shad, I hope you focus from weapons-mainly to infrastructure-mainly. That means castles, towns, road, building techniques, medieval life challenges, and so on. Even for the fantasy element, taking modern-world ideas and products and applying them to fictional medieval-level worlds would and thinking of what the results would be, would be very interesting. For example, using railways for transport, using pedal-power and treadle-power for locomotives, and using gearboxes for changing between different torques and speeds. Same for using mostly-wooden and completely-wooden bicycles, for example for information transport. Mapping could be done by using a very tall wooden tower with a very tall tree log with a rotating system and with a very large mirror on the top, paired with telescopes which we know existed, could be used to map out areas, and maybe even for optical telegraphs. And using a water trompe to get compressed air and compressed water, using excess air and water for cooling down pipes through which air passes through to get to vert-well-insulated fridge houses and the air from there cooling down the pipes even more before escaping into the atmosphere, and some of the air being passively pumped into wells in the city or pumped up to get even more compressed air through a smaller water trompe.
This was cool! I had to pull up google maps and look at the castle as you were moving around it to get better understanding of the layout. It was a lot of fun!
Shad, your castle videos are why I started watching your channel all those years ago, and now a full proper tour! What a Christmas present!!! I hope you have some more of these banked up with lots of details. The castle videos are by far my favorite.
I really loved this content Shad. If you can do more like it in the future I will for sure watch. Very well done. I have done lots of research on castles and seem many a documentary and this was awesome. Ty enjoyed the journey as well my friend.
I live less than an hr away from there I'd never think that ever since watching you all those years back in your old wooden chair talking about movie fight scenes would ever make it to my country and now even closer. Love your vids man keep on rockin
Okay. We need more Shad visiting the castles of the world! 🏰 This is amazing.
U cant wait tonsee him at Guedelon Castle and does any cadtlr fan actuslly not know about it?
Ok, we crowdfund sending him on trips to castles to tour them and do deep dives into each one.
@@1st1anarkissed I would LOVE to see hime going through Guedelon.
He filmed all this months ago. He's releasing them spread out as to not disrupt the algorithm, which makes a lot of sense. Who knows what castles he already reviewed and is yet to edit and release!
I would love to see him tour the castles of Spain and Portugal. Slightly different architecture. I find them to be very beautiful and underrated.
These castle tour videos are an awesome addition to the channel
They were the standard for this channel and IMHO the best video's.
@@gbosman5874 He never had actual castle tours. Camera flights on a computer don't hold a candle to this.
Shad needs to talk more about the nun-chuck holes used to thwart attackers. Nun-chuck kill zones between the inner and outer walls were known to be very effective.
One would have to attack that castle very CAERPHILLY.
That bird was like. "Hello. Was it me your looking for?"
I am really glad you filmed all this and edited it but didn't upload it all at once. I love castles, I love watching you live one of your dreams and share it. But moderation is not just for health. I hope there are more for the coming year.
Was the birds name Lionel, as in Lionel Richey? ;)
I was wondering when more of these would come out. What a beautiful castle.
9:00 that guy with the stroller is hilarious. He saw the sword and changed his mind real quick!
I liked the guard-bird standing at the ready by the arrow-loop. Very historically accurate.
10:50 that pigeon being like 'get out of my house' :P
Shad, this is such a great video. If you ever visit another castle can you please have cuts with the floor plan/ overhead view of the castle and point out where you are standing from? This would add so much to understanding exactly where and what each position of the castle is designed to defend.
it was a little confusing as it was, yes this would be nice, thanks
Another great video of one of my local and favourite castles, thank you!
When you note the different materials used in reconstruction and preservation you are actually highlighting some important preservation best practice; When reconstructing historical sites, whilst it's crucial to try and replicate the original structures as closely as possible, it's also best practice to deliberately use different, newer materials to clearly distinguish between the original and the restored sections. This approach might involve a layer of differently typed stones or employing modern mortar, stone, and even concrete where necessary. The goal is to preserve the site while also making the timeline of construction and restoration clear. This method ensures that future generations can understand the castle's history and the extent of modern interventions.
🏴🇬🇧
P.S; I agree with JoshuaFoy, that would add some very useful clarity - pointing out where the features you are looking at and explaining/exploring on a plan map of the castle would assist in understanding what is where. 😊 thanks again!
I'll have to look but i may have a map of the castle laying around from last time i visited there.
Google Maps is good enough for the job - maps.app.goo.gl/m74QvCkzW1p2D7iA8 - great hall is the big square thing to the south of main site.
Streetview may help as well - maps.app.goo.gl/m74QvCkzW1p2D7iA8 =
there are quite a few photo spheres about. - maps.app.goo.gl/CSaKQxe9oSaD4fwX9
This is from me knowing the area i could be talking out of my arse here.....
To the South is Cardiff and a port on a large plan. This is 1 valley in from the sea or the route you would go to avoid local plan The Castle is East West as there is a pass to Nantgarw to the east and then on newport way to the south. There is a valley up to blackwood to the north. Its a fair sized plane for the valleys and natural choke points. The Taff and Rhymney rivers would have made good choke points to cross so situation is good for defending and keeping an eye on those points. I can imagine that the bit between cardiff and newport would be marshy way back and this might have been a nicer route for some of the year west.
The area was extensively settled in victorian times for the coal so there is a lot of development. But the river Taff to the West has been settled since the Neolithic, iron age and used to have Anglo Saxon forts, Norman mottle and bailey and later castles over crossing of the taff.
Hah, good point that, I'm so familiar with Caerphilly it didn't even occur to me that people might get confused!
Shad! You should do more videos designing castles! The remade Winterfell video is my favorite thing on TH-cam!
Cheers! Well that one was a lot of work but maybe I'll get to doing another one someday ^_^
look who's here :D After the bridges episode, are there any castles to talk about ? :D
@@shadiversity perhaps you could do some of the existing english castles you visited, being able to do 3d view would help explain some of the features/points in these castle videos....
I love how shad coming to the UK turns him into a kid in a candy store. As a Brit, I've been lucky enough to go to many places like Corfe, Chepstowe and many others. Even my local museum is a repurposed castle. Sometimes I take these things for granted, and it's refreshing to see someone so enthused by the ability to just see a castle
I’ll likely never see one…
If your castle repurposed into a museum is Colchester, then it's not just a castle, it's a repurposed _roman_ building.
@andypughtube nah it's Taunton lol
@@andypughtube
My local castle, as a child, was an intact Roman fort. Portchester castle was a Saxon Shore fort and still has its original walls. You get a good view of it if you catch the ferry from Portsmouth to France
I guess Brits do take having castles nearby for granted, not really their fault. Australians, Kiwis, Canadians, and Americans don't really have very old buildings or castles and our references are all from pictures and film. The oldest "castle" we have here in the US is the Castillo de San Marcos in Florida, which is an early modern Spanish bastion fort which is definitely an awesome era in history but not a medieval castle.
Machicolaaaaaaaaations!
This was a wonderful exploration of the location and history. I have loved these videos from the castle trip.
i love the castle vids
Slate roofing is a common design choice not only for castles but for common housing still used today.
Slate is a very common stone type available in Wales and it is very effective at dealing with the high rainfall! ... as well as many types of projectile I should imagine.
I wasnt expecting more castle videos, i was pleasantly surprised.
I am from Caerphilly my whole family from Caerphilly county borough. We went here all the time, for school trips and general days outs. Also Cardiff castle and castell coch. Great castles. I'm a big medieval nerd and I guess I always took living so close to great medieval monuments for granted
How is it defined as the biggest castle in whales? I've been to caernarfon and it looks so much bigger
@@conorfennell8475 I think it includes the water defenses in it's area of being the biggest
I thought maybe caernarfon "castle" might not include the town wall maybe. Idk when a castle stops counting as a castle and becomes a citadel
I visited when I was just about 12 years old and I was beyond jealous. I could not believe people lived in houses smack up against a medieval wall while I had to fly across the ocean to see anything older than a couple hundred years (in America)
Yeah I also took it for granted that there are a lot of medieval buildings and a lot of medieval markets in my area as i live in Germany. It is pretty useful as a history fan!
Always good to see Caerphilly in one of your videos. I never see many people acknowledge the existence of Wales online, let alone the amazing castles. And seeing something relatively local is nice too.
Online or offline, most just think Wales is somewhere near Germany. On St Patrick's day I wear my WRU jersey while lobbing coal and singing Tom Jones songs to help bring a little Wales to my oblivious fellow Americans...
@@curtbalch2321wait people actually know wales exist?
Isn't wales just an old word for foreigners?
I thought everyone knew wales exist… people been saying save the wales for my hole life, I figured they were having success 🤷
It's mostly the Americans who have no idea about this.
I have been hoping you would do another video on castles soon. I love hearing about castles.
9:58 lady with baby carriage comes up, Shad is pointing out the slot murder holes. Lady with baby slowly backs away.
*8:58. And its a man!
Thats a push chair
@@TonySpikeIt is a carrying device occupied by a baby, aka a baby carriage
You can tell it wasn't an American. We would have had no problem interrupting his video to pass by.
@@TonySpike it's also called a baby stroller.
Thank you for spreading these out so I can enjoy each castle separately
Hi Shad, I have a potential answer to what the small room with the window overlooking the gatehouse chamber/solar/hall, with the fireplace and windows at 18:16, is for, or its design intention.
So lots of castles have a kind of raised viewing space for primarily the women of the castle, for instance, the ladies, or maybe daughters to overlook social events, gatherings, or meetings without being seen/noticed from a comfortable space; and to allow the lady and or lord to kind of survey ahead of time who was in the overlooked space, like guests before entering themselves, to prepare or decide whether grant an audience.
There is a similar overlook at Dover Castle in the great hall/throne room of the keep that actually has two, one overlooking from behind the throne, accessed from the hallway off the primary stairwell deeper in the castle, and the second one, lower though still raised and off to the side, accessed from a side passage between the hall and a private chappeland back corridor into the adjoining hall/private arias of the castle.
I learned about these private viewing chambers being designed for the women and master of the castle when I studied castles for a semester last year at uni.
@Roman_Eagle, It could be that the gatehouse ‘hall’ was a chapel and the overlooking small chamber was where the lord and lady would attend from, out of sight of the lower status soldiery/commoners.
That's very interesting. The ones in Dover even seem like they are tailor-made for different groups - like maybe the one behind the throne was intended only for the king and close confidantes, and the side gallery was the women's area. I'm not sure the exact extent to which men and women were separated in 12th century society, but I do know that sufficiently wealthy husbands and wives would maintain separate households within the same residence. I wonder if they only really mixed at specific times, and so having separate viewing galleries would further facilitate that.
My hometown, caerphilly famous for the cheese and the castle. And both are impressive!
I really love your videos, especially castle related ones!
Among my top 5 castles, ever. Many decades ago, I based a D&D castle on Caerphilly Castle. It was only vulnerable from air attack, dragons. But with some redesign with air defenses, it was near impregnable.
Burrow speed and Move Earth spells would like to have a word...
I've not yet done it with a castle, but I recently updated an old dungeon by adding a disused farmhouse / small manor house above it, based on a medieval house in North Wales (Penarth Fawr).
watch Shad geek out about castles? say no more i click
edit: respect to the guy at 9:00 for quietly backing out of the shot, looks like Shad didn't even notice him until editing xD
Absolutely wonderful to watch you visit this castle for the first time that you saw from far away until then. And thanks for the knowledge you offer as well
This is what I've been missing from Shadiversity! Stuff like this is why I came years ago. Glad you got to go into such a great castle.
I LOVE castles. Since you're in Wales you must visit Skenfrith, White Castle, Grosmont, Raglan, Castell Coch ...
One could say it was caerphilly built! =D
I’ll show myself out….
If your in Wales chances are it's slate tiles. Wales is famous for its slate and it's gorgeous stuff.
It's hard to say from the angle in the video but it looks like it could be limestone too. But then I'm no expert.
Another great video of one of my local and favourite castles, thank you!
When you note the different materials used in reconstruction and preservation you are actually highlighting some important preservation best practice; When reconstructing historical sites, whilst it's crucial to try and replicate the original structures as closely as possible, it's also best practice to deliberately use different, newer materials to clearly distinguish between the original and the restored sections. This approach might involve a layer of differently typed stones or employing modern mortar, stone, and even concrete where necessary. The goal is to preserve the site while also making the timeline of construction and restoration clear. This method ensures that future generations can understand the castle's history and the extent of modern interventions.
🏴🇬🇧
Whoa, this is so cool! I've always wanted to visit a castle that was still standing... Thank you for the informative tour!
Lord Shad continues his journey down history of medieval castles and seeing Shad talking about castles you can tell that he loves doing so due to him loving the history of these marvels of engineering that were part of the old world.
I love how you stay original and even bring with you sword and walk around
Caerphilly castle is truly one of the most massive and technical castles Ive ever visited in the UK .... It also has its own collection of siege weapons..
Its a brute, the hoardings ive always previously been regarded as fighting galleries. 🧙♂️
What’s especially cool about it is the fact that it has complete water moat which expands all around the castle.
That Pidgeon was looking at you there like, ''Good morning, do you have an appointment?''
Been there a couple of times and it is magnificent. So happy that you offered more info and details. I had lived in the UK for 10 years and visited some other iconic castles. This video made me feel nostalgic.
That goose was a big fan
I am so excited to read your book. I got it for Christmas, and so far it’s an awesome read. Thank you for your awesome channel and amazing supporters for making this year great.
This is what the History Channel should have been - actually about history and explained by someone whose passion for it is infectious
It's a bit silly to bring up since I know Shad isn't like this, but I really have to say how much I appreciate Shad not decrying the renovations being done. You know there is some web-brained moron who's out there angry that isn't not all original and authentic or whatever. I just appreciate how he acknowledges the renovations being done, shows how you can tell, and even if there's changes, such as the arrow slit into a window, not getting all up in arms over it. They, of course, have to renovate to maintain it for future renovations. Considering how often castles were besieged, among other disasters, I'd be very surprised it all of the castle was completely original anyway. I especially noticed that with the hoardings for simply pointing out that the floor wasn't correct, but of course it's not as it still needs to be safe for the public.
Also, good on those maintain the castle for trying to maintain such authenticity with their renovations. Doing what's needed to maintain it but still acknowledging how it would've once been. It makes me wonder though, when it however many decades they have to completely renovate the stonework before it collapses, will they eventually just completely rebuilding the castle?
Again, not mind-boggling praise as it just requires only a slight modicum of common sense, but that seems to be in such short supply nowadays I just felt inclined to mentioned it. Thanks Shad!
I’d agree they are web-brained morons if they can’t reason a few bits of rebar and concrete to keep historic places from total degradation.
There’s no shortage of ruins lol.
As long as they're not using plastic, or aluminum siding, or having air conditioning units sticking out of the windows, I approve.
A lot of the British castles are ruins because they were deliberately "slighted" during the civil war, to prevent them being re-used by the opposition.
Some possibly more than once.
Some people take their love of "originality" too far. They'd rather see a pile of "original" stone left untouched in ruins, whereas a reasonable enthusiast would much rather see those stones carefully relaid with cosmetically period appropriate materials and techniques, and restored to their original condition.
The Butes owned the castle for a couple of hundred years. During the Great Depression the mines suffered huge unemployment and the Earl put many of them to work on restoring his castles (Cardiff, Castell Coch, Caerphilly, etc). After the war the family moved back to their ancestral home in Scotland leaving Cardiff Castle to the City Corporation, and Castell Coch and Caerphilly to the central government. Today, CADW administers and manages the latter pair on behalf of the state. CADW is currently renovating the Great Hall at Caerphilly (as Shad says) and this work is due to be completed in 2024. Modern restorations are much more sympathetic to the original conditions - using mortar instead of cement, not using iron braces which expand when wet, etc.
I walked past that castle every day to work - so happy you got to have a good look round!
It's even better with your commentary 😍😍
I don't think most people realize just how much timber was used in the construction and daily operation of castles. A forest was needed as much as a quarry! 😊
Great to hear you’re enthusiasm for the castle. Lots of great castles in Wales. My fave is Harlech castle. 👌
Well this is a nice late present for Christmas. It does raise some questions in my head such as what the hell did the Welsh think of some Aussie in medieval garb walking around with a sword and scabbard. An Aussie giving all the enthusiasm like an overstimulated cat on catnip.
*edit* Actually, watching the video a bit more I am surprised that Shad was fine walking around with his sword. Usually that would result in a talking to by the police, at the very least.
See, told you Shad was going to steal a castle and bring it back to the upside-down. Cheers!
This feels like a wonderful return to form! I absolutely love your educational history content, and I hope there will be more coming :)
You are in your element here, Shad. Good stuff.
I’m happy for more castle videos.
Thank you Shad! This was amazing!
These videos are really cool. Thank you for making them!
Genuinly shocked me when I open my TH-cam feed and see one of my favourite youtubers visiting my local castle. Great video as always. A recommendation of a visit if you're in the area would be Castle Coch
Enjoyed this video. Was waiting for them to be released. Thank you. Glad to see the actual size of real merlons.
I was just at Caerphilly exactly a month ago! Beautiful castle. I loved spent literally hours there and loved every minute of it.
Regarding those hoardings they don’t look remotely big enough to allow a long bowman to properly draw and shoot from. Joe Gibbs and Tod from Todd Workshop recently tried shooting from stop battlements and the room required for drawing and aiming was quite astounding actually.
dont need a longbow when youre firing straight down, no more than 5-10 metres
and more importantly they had crossbows
You don't need full draw for shooting at someone 5 meters away.
On average, people were often also shorter than we are today.
Caerphilly has been my favorite castle since I was a kid.
The slots at 9:25 look significantly wider than those at 3:54.
It seems to me that stones small enough to drop through those narrower gaps wouldn't effectively injure invaders wearing helmets.
And as Tod's Workshop demonstrated in a recent episode, shooting an arrow downward is very difficult for biomechanical reasons. Crossbows would work better, but they're slow to fire unless you have a reloading team.
Taking the above into consideration, plus the fact that the gatehouse is an enclosed space, I think that what they would actually drop in that spot is powdered quicklime. It's cheap, easy to transport and store in sacks, it doesn't require a fire to heat up like dropping hot sand or boiling oil, and best of all, because the gatehouse provides some shelter from the wind, it would linger in the air, blinding anyone trying to get through. All in all, a very efficient weapon to use in a chokepoint like that.
Oh, and they'd be making quicklime regularly anyway, because it's the main ingredient in whitewash paint (the other ingredient being water).
Cool theory.. yeah I was thinking they'd pour boiling water down there too
I think you're underestimating just how hard even a modest cobblestone sized rock would hit when dropped from fifty feet up. Armour can't protect against blunt force trauma very well, even if the helmet does resist the impact you still have concussion or neck injuries to worry about.
@@WJS774 I think you're overestimating it.
Look at the size of the stones they're depicted dropping from the hoardings at 22:36
Would they be carrying ones that big up there if fist-sized rocks would do the job?
Modern soldiers wear helmets primarily to protect against shrapnel and debris falling down on their head that's been launched into the air by explosions.
Plus unless you manage to drop the rock perfectly straight down (which you're not going to reliably do in a hurry), the rocks will lose energy/lethality bouncing off the walls of those thin slots, and maybe even get stuck. They'd need to score more or less a direct hit on the top of someone's head to have a chance of injuring them. Are they going to measure hundreds or thousands of rocks to make sure they aren't too big? Or just dump sacks of powder and not worry about it?
@@trogdor8764 The problem I see, is that they basically have not field of view.
You would have to wait for an enemy to move below the slit and hope, that the stone would be down that hole faster than the guy moves away.
The last one looks kinda practical, although it could be to close to the inner gate.
The second you mentioned Wales, I was waiting for Mauler to pop in.
Back when Shad models castles in Sketch Up. Now he's visiting castles itself. Quite a journey eh Shad! :D
I'm happy for these castle videos but I'm even more happy for you who got to visit them.
Guess you could say it was constructed pretty… _caerphilly?_
Eh? Eh?
i was wondering why we hadnt seen more UK adventures vids posted, didnt know if we were gonna get more! glad to see another one! these are super neat.
A lot of our british castles were not "restored" they were repurposed by the british military over time in a lot of cases. this all happened before we started doing grade listed building stuff to prevent them just ramming modern stuff in. When we do restoration work they try to replicate exactly what it would have been
Understandable, even the Colosseum got repurposed as a castle for some time
Technically Caerphilly castle was both updated and restored in either by the armies or by historians
Glad you liked our Castles Shad. This is like a typical day out with my kids when they were growing up.
I'd imagine all of these are pre recorded, but did you happen to visit Beeston castle as part of your trip? Alas I'd imagine the castle where I work would be of little interest but the tale of Beeston as well as Ranulf are an interesting tale nevertheless. The palantine of Cheshire has many a tale for those willing to delve into its history.
I really like these castle tour viedos.
I'm certainly in the minority as I have no interest in fantasy, however when you are visiting real castles and talking about actual history in the context of where you are, I find your videos engaging.
Same, I find myself not caring too much lately, but this is neat stuff
This is exactly what I subscribed for: not only real medieval history, but 27+ minutes of nonstop, start-to-finish content (facts and analysis). For the same reason, even the previous (50+ minute) castle tour flew by so much faster than most of the recent videos (30+ minutes with 10-12 minutes of actual content constantly interrupted by 20 minutes of clowning for the fanbois).
With bigger castles you need to add a map and show it sometimes on the edge of screen woth big red dot so we don't lose idea where you are.
Love visiting Caerphilly castle. They do a festival there once a year and its a great day out.
Bird: "you gotta license for that murder hole mate?"
4:40 I can't believe that they released the hounds on you Shad! 🐶😁
I live in Caerphilly, and had quite a shock when i seen this video. Thanks for visiting 👌
I just wanted to say how happy I am for you, that you can expiriense, the castles you so often talk about, in person.
I grew up and live in The Marches area and have visited Caerphilly many times. One of my favourites for sure, nice to see Shad waxing lyrical about it.
It's like watching a child in a toy store. This man clearly loves what he's doing and what he's seeing, and that just makes the video better. His positivity is infectious. I love the video.
Fantastic to see more of your ecstatic castle adventures. You're radiant in these.
Absolutely amazing
This is absolutely wonderful and im a little mad you didnt do this earlier lol!! We want MORE of Shad visiting Castles!!!
i really like that you respect people's privacy enough to blur them out when needed. most people just film whoever they want and upload it. but yeah good work - it's not gone unnoticed.
These castle tours you have been doing are awesome. I want to visit these places so badly. I think these types of videos are where you are at your best. Thank you for entertaining and educating everyone! I will come visit your castles in Australia once you finish them!
What a beauty. I hope one day I will tread such a majestic structure.
I wonder how much the original stonework collectively weighed.
Shad the mad lad visits Wales again just to bring us another fantastic video.
He truly is the best!
I got to visit Caerphilly in '87 when I was stationed in England and part of the SCA. Loved being able to do an event there and get some idea on what it may have been like to live and work there. We had a feast in the great hall and found out that the clump of trees, across the moat on the southwestern side, were the remains of a Roman hillfort - outpost.
Shad I can't believe you were there! I live in Cardiff and love to go to Caerphilly, it's so strange you were so close to home.
Finally! I was starting to wonder if there were ever gonna be more castles from your trip.
Shad, I hope you focus from weapons-mainly to infrastructure-mainly. That means castles, towns, road, building techniques, medieval life challenges, and so on. Even for the fantasy element, taking modern-world ideas and products and applying them to fictional medieval-level worlds would and thinking of what the results would be, would be very interesting. For example, using railways for transport, using pedal-power and treadle-power for locomotives, and using gearboxes for changing between different torques and speeds. Same for using mostly-wooden and completely-wooden bicycles, for example for information transport. Mapping could be done by using a very tall wooden tower with a very tall tree log with a rotating system and with a very large mirror on the top, paired with telescopes which we know existed, could be used to map out areas, and maybe even for optical telegraphs. And using a water trompe to get compressed air and compressed water, using excess air and water for cooling down pipes through which air passes through to get to vert-well-insulated fridge houses and the air from there cooling down the pipes even more before escaping into the atmosphere, and some of the air being passively pumped into wells in the city or pumped up to get even more compressed air through a smaller water trompe.
My mom guides tours in the castle of Beersel, one of the few remaining security buffers of Brussels. Maybe one day Shad will visit that one.
I used to live in Caerphilly. It was always great to go to the moat and look upon the castle.
Shad's enthusiasm is just infections, I love it!
These are so cool. Thanks for sharing them! ❤
This was cool! I had to pull up google maps and look at the castle as you were moving around it to get better understanding of the layout. It was a lot of fun!
Shad, your castle videos are why I started watching your channel all those years ago, and now a full proper tour! What a Christmas present!!! I hope you have some more of these banked up with lots of details. The castle videos are by far my favorite.
I used to play around the castle as a kid, climbing the towers and curtain walls. Such fond memories.
I love how schoolboy giddy Shad is about this! His excitement is clear and makes the video SOO much better!
I really loved this content Shad. If you can do more like it in the future I will for sure watch. Very well done. I have done lots of research on castles and seem many a documentary and this was awesome. Ty enjoyed the journey as well my friend.
I'm so glad Shad visited the UK and is able to put these videos out.
I was brought here by your short you did a good job with that got my attention😂
I live less than an hr away from there I'd never think that ever since watching you all those years back in your old wooden chair talking about movie fight scenes would ever make it to my country and now even closer. Love your vids man keep on rockin
Because Caerphilly castle is f'ing awesome! I grew up in Cardiff and spent a lot of time there.
Been to several feasts in the great hall (in the nineties). The lakes were to keep siege engines at a distance.