The Largest Castle in Wales | Caerphilly Castle

Despite the fact I had lived in the UK for over a year I hadn't really visited a castle. Well, I have. In 2011 I visited Edinburgh Castle, but that was years ago. Since my "big move" last September, I hadn't made a single trip to a castle. Obviously long overdue.

Caerphilly Castle was chosen as our destination based on serious research. Pintrest research of course. Elle stumbled across a few pictures of Wale's largest castle via Pintrest and I was sold. The trip out to the castle seemed easy enough (we're notorious for having at least one horrible public transportation experience per trip). We headed to the train station one rainy morning and booked our tickets to Cardiff. Cardiff seemed unusually busy when we arrived. I'm talking police every ten feet patrolling the crowds busy. Turns out the International Rugby game AND ComicCon were taking place in the city that day. Our luck, right? We maneuvered our way through excited rugby fans and comic book characters to get on another train that would take us to Caerphilly. 

Caerphilly, only about 20 minutes north of Cardiff, was a charming little Welsh town. Like many towns with surviving medieval fortresses, the entire city is practically built around the castle. A five minute walk from the train station and we were there. 

The largest castle in Wales, Caerphilly Castle sits on an island surrounded by a moat. Yes, an actual castle surrounded by an actual moat! It is largely in ruins thanks to the generous bombings that took place during the English Reformation (this is me rolling my eyes at people in the past disregarding the importance of sites such as this one).

Having made our trip in November, we practically had the castle to ourselves. Tickets to Caerphilly Castle are only 4.50, an absolute steal if you ask me! We spent the majority of our day wandering the deserted corridors, laughing our heads off at the hidden statues (especially the one in the mirror room)! Wellies/rainboots are a must, especially if you go in the winter months!

Happy Thursday!
xoxo