Caerphilly, my favorite castle

By now it must be clear that I'm weirdly obsessed with castles. Thus, when I say a castle is my favorite, it is like picking a favorite child. Caerphilly wins, for numerous reasons. 

First, it's the largest castle in Wales, which is impressive in and of itself. More importantly for me, it is incredibly well designed, a wonder of defensive architecture:

Mostly, though, it hits that perfect mix of ruined and reconstructed. Usually castles have either not been maintained at all (in which case they are more a pile of rocks than buildings), they have been altered beyond recognition (often into stately homes), or they have been reconstructed accurately (which is better than the other cases, but still loses that sense of mystery, power, and wonder of a good ruin). Caerphilly, on the other hand, fell into ruin but was reconstructed fairly recently, and only reconstructed to the extent that historians were certain of the original form. Thus towers remain standing, though sometimes barely, and the general form of the castle is easy to see, yet that feeling of discovery and of standing in awe of the power of time isn't whitewashed over. 

Before the castle opened I wandered around moat, appreciating the reflections and the massive main gate. 

Still waiting, I picked up some meat pies and pasties and ate them on park benches across from the castle and near a tree carved into a dragon. 

I gleefully entered at the appointed hour. 

Through the inner wall was a display of siege weaponry. I didn't realize before how much twisted rope was involved in firing a ballista or catapult.

Another display showed defensive walkways overhanging the walls. Note the figure in the murder hole. 

As I mentioned before, the partly ruined bits were my favorite:

I of course climbed the mostly reconstructed great hall (and any other stairs that weren't blocked off), which offered some nice views. 

If you somehow still want to see more, I took dozens more pictures.