Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Travel Tuesday: Cardiff Castle, Wales

This week's edition of Travel Tuesday features another Welsh Castle - Cardiff.  Cardiff Castle began as a Roman fort circa 50AD, and after the Norman Invasion in 1066, the Norman Keep was built on the site of this fort.  This Keep still stands today.   In addition to the Norman Keep, Cardiff Castle also includes the main Castle itself, and the current Gothic Style dates backs to the mid 1800s.   The Castle lies right in the heart of Cardiff, the Welsh capital. 

More information on Cardiff Castle and its history can be found on the Castle's official webpage: http://www.cardiffcastle.com/content.asp?parent_directory_id=1

Here are some of my pics:

The Norman Keep (one picture taken from the Castle grounds, the other from inside the Keep)



Castle (looking towards the Castle apartments)
 

For anyone planning to travel to south Wales, Cardiff Castle is well worth a visit.

Literary LinkCardiff Castle is featured, albeit briefly, in my current read - Susan Higginbotham's Hugh and Bess (synopsis from Chapters.indigo.ca:


Forced to marry Hugh le Despenser, the son and grandson of disgraced traitors, Bess de Montacute, just 13 years old, is appalled at his less-than-desirable past. Meanwhile, Hugh must give up the woman he really loves in order to marry the reluctant Bess. Far apart in age and haunted by the past, can Hugh and Bess somehow make their marriage work?

Just as walls break down and love begins to grow, the merciless plague endangers all whom the couple holds dear, threatening the life and love they have built.

Award-winning author Susan Higginbotham's impeccable research will delight avid historical fiction readers, and her enchanting characters will surely capture every reader's heart. Fans of her first novel, The Traitor's Wife, will be thrilled to find that this story follows the next generation of the Despenser family.