Carreg Cennen

Now, England has a fair few castles in it, and some of them are quite impressive, but i have to confess that nothing prepared me for just how wonderful my first real Welsh Castle visit would be! I am lucky enough to have a friend who knows a good few things about British history and Castles in particular and he recommended this one to me.

Boy was i not disappointed. Sitting atop a promontory, was the spectacular Carreg Cennen castle. We could see it from miles away, showing just why it was built in this location, the chances of sneaking up on this were about as low as Ross Kemp's brow.....I stopped off to get a couple of nice distance shots of the castle, and to finish the scene perfectly, we could see buzzards and kites circling on the thermals around the castle. It was enough to put goosebumps on my goosebumps!!

Carreg Cennen approach

The dots you can see in the sky are buzzards and/or kites - not some bits of grit on the lens!! If you are sitting there thinking "what dots? i don't see any dots." then you clearly have not expanded the image (click on it). As i am getting the hang of photography, i am slowly learning things about composition too, and i know this photo is not very well composed, as i am showing too much sky (ooo i almost sound like i know what i am talking about ;) ).

Anyway, i digress (you will find that a lot in the blog), we popped back in the car and drove up to the castle. I was not disappointed. It was a steep enough ascent to the castle, but well worth it when you got there as it is set against a sheer cliff.

Sarah (my girlfriend) is not a big fan of sheer drops, but i could not resist leaning over the wall and looking down at the wonderful scene below. Sarah is from Wales, so i suppose these sort of things are much of a muchness to her, whereas i come from the fens (not born and inbred there, but spent all my life) where we call speed bumps hills, so this was a real novelty to me!

The castle has some really good history to it, ranging from iron age hill fort to strategic castle in the War of the Roses. It also sits on top of some caves which appeals to the Morlock inside me! I was a little disappointed with this to be honest, as when i got there the caves didnt seem to go very deep, and there was no lighting to guide your way or anything, so i turned back (i was too tight to spend the extra money on a helmet with a torch!!). My lack of enthusiasm had nothing to do with having watched The Descent: Part II only a few days before!!

the descent....

I was half expecting to see a strange sub-terranean cave dweller on the camera screen, having taken this picture in complete darkness.....that would have been a real Hollywood moment!