Woolly says – With the weather being so hot we hadn’t had the inclination to go anywhere for a couple of weeks, unless it involved a large fan and a cool mat, both Handsome Jack and I were baking in our fur coats. Finally with the weather changing and some drizzle to freshen the air I felt it was time to get us out and find a new destination.

The drop in temperatures was a welcome relief as we headed across the border into Wales before navigating the M4 which Jo didn’t seem to enjoy very much, luckily, we weren’t on it for long before spotting the signs for Caerphilly.

Caerphilly is 7 miles (11 km) north of Cardiff and 9.5 miles (15.3 km) west of Newport, the name of the town in Welsh, Caerffili, means “the fort (caer) of Ffili”.

The town’s site had long been of strategic significance with a Roman fort known to have been built there in AD 75 followed by the castle in 1268. During the 1700s, Caerphilly began to grow into a market town, and in the 19th century, as the South Wales Valleys underwent massive growth through industrialisation, the town’s population grew. The town is also famous for its cheese, Caerphilly is a hard, crumbly white cheese that originated in the area thought to have been created to provide food for the local coal miners. The Caerphilly of that period had a greater moisture content and was made in local farms. At the start of the 20th century, competition for milk in the local area saw production decline, and Caerphilly production was gradually relocated to England. During the Second World War, production was stopped and diverted to Cheddar in English factories. After the war, those factories began to produce Caerphilly as it was quicker to make than Cheddar, and therefore more profitable. The majority of Caerphilly is now produced in Somerset and Wiltshire.

Having parked up we headed across the park in the general direction of the castle having a quick pit stop for the elderly human amongst us to have a toilet stop and a quick coffee before she could apparently do anything else. As we sat slurping our drinks, I decided to provide some key information to my small group on the castle and its history.

Gilbert de Clare began the construction of Caerphilly Castle on 11th April 1268, although it took until the 1320s for the castle to be completed. Surrounded by extensive artificial lakes – considered by historian Allen Brown to be “the most elaborate water defences in all Britain” – it occupies around 30 acres (12 ha) and is the largest castle in Wales and the third-largest castle in the United Kingdom (after Dover Castle & Windsor Castle). It is famous for having introduced concentric castle defences to Britain and for its large gatehouses.

With the coffee and drinks consumed we headed towards the spectacular looking building.

We followed the moat round which gave us glimpses of the outer structure and the incredible defence walls.

A small gatehouse with a narrow but impressively high entrance way was locked so we continued around the moat watching the gaggles of geese wandering everywhere.

Having passed a mini castle model, we arrived at the main gatehouse and crossed the bridge over the moat where for the first time we could see the tilted tower.

The castle’s South-East tower is known for its significant lean, surpassing the angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This leaning is believed to be caused by ground subsidence, potentially due to the castle’s water defences and is estimated to be around 10 degrees. Despite the dramatic lean, the tower remains structurally sound and has been reinforced, which was very reassuring for visitors.

Having paid for our tickets and been informed that the main banqueting hall and surrounding area was closed, ‘of course it was’ I mumbled under my breath as Jo glared at me, something always has to be closed, I sighed and plodded along the walkway taking time to admire the wonderful towers and brickwork.

We headed towards a big hole in the ground where the cellars had once been, I got very excited to see that the area that had once stored grain and provisions was now home to two large dragons, pressing a large button we stood and listened to the story of how the red dragon had come into being and why it was still on the Welsh flag today.

Waving goodbye to the scaley creatures we ventured closer to the leaning tower to find that a wooden statue was actually holding it up. Depicting the 4th Marquess of Bute, John Crichton-Stuart who saved Caerphilly Castle from ruin, the 20ft tall sculpture was carved by John Merrill using oak from the Powys Castle Estate and was placed at the base of the tower in 2013 as a tribute to the Marquess who carried out major restoration works between 1928 and 1939 which included re-flooding the dried up lakes, and rebuilding a number of towers as well as the eastern gate.

We wandered on finding ourselves at another gatehouse.

Inside the south guardroom was a video providing us with the history of the castle in both Welsh and English, a set of steps led to the roof view but having climbed a short way up our route was blocked so we headed back down again and into the north guardroom which had a modern exhibition of artifacts (not the real ones) that had been found over the years of work in the castle.

A gate stopped us from going any closer to the grand hall, so I had to content myself with peering through the mesh to see the buildings on the other side. With no way through we went back on our selves until we found a small passageway that would take us round the side of the closed area.

Following the moat, we came to an area with a wooden balcony known as a hourd. Only fixed in place when the castle was under attack it was a very early example of flat packed furniture…Ikea has yet to offer something like this in its range of products!

We passed a stone sculpture of a kneeling man before finding another fence through which we could peer at the closed area of the castle again.

Continuing along the pathway we passed another gatehouse that lay in ruins with moss giving it an eery feel.

We found ourselves in a wildflower area with beautiful planting at the base of another tower, this tower had lead spouts poking out at the top as well as a window with what appeared to be a chalice in it, sadly no information board was around to tell us more.

Retracing our steps we headed back to the ticket office and took the right hand pathway across the brick defences to inspect the battle equipment of the time which was huge.

At the end of the grass was another two gatehouses, I had lost count of how many entrances there had once been to the castle, but it must have meant an awful lot of soldiers on duty at all times to guard them.

Walking back to the ticket centre we took the left hand route which led us along the next section of brick defences giving us a closer look at the walls and moat with its lily pads blooming happily.

With the castle completed we crossed the road to have a look at the small town, a large shopping area seemed to have been developed with an ornate circular building at its entrance, we ignored the shops and kept walking finding a very modern looking war memorial.

As we started to discuss a late lunch we came to the statue of the towns most well known son, Tommy Cooper. Thomas Frederick Cooper (19th March 1921 to 15th April 1984) was a prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m), and he was known for wearing a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army for seven years before developing his conjuring skills and becoming a member of The Magic Circle. Although he spent time on tour performing his magical act, which specialised in magic tricks that appeared to fail, he rose to international prominence when his career moved into television. By the end of the 1970s, Cooper was smoking and drinking heavily, which affected his career and his health, on the 15th of April 1984, Cooper died at the age of 63 after suffering a heart attack on live television, an event that many remember. Although he had left Caerphilly at the age of three the town had never forgotten him.

With the skies getting darker and rain beginning to fall we raced towards a dry café to enjoy some lunch and a view of the castle whilst we sat and ate.