History Summarized: The Castles of Wales 

As a Welsh person I always have to remind myself that the castles we have aren't...normal? and the reactions that they can inspire in other people! Like Caerphilly is just where a close friend lives and the castle is just something you walk past on the way to the pub every weekend. Similarly Newport castle (or whats left of it) is a thing my bus route into town takes you past, Or Aberystwyth castle being a thing I sat in front of eating fish and chips while I was there for university. Meanwhile for Blue its this fascinating window into a world long past. God I love how history makes one persons mundane another's wonder and vice versa

As someone born and raised in Caerphilly, it's so refreshing to see someone non-Welsh not only do the castle and its history justice, but to almost nail every pronunciation as well. Da iawn!

I refuse to die until I get to one day own a castle. Whether taken legally or by force, I shall have my keep.

As a welsh native living and commuteing near castles I never really thought about them much. It is amazing to see from an outsider's perspective

As someone who grew up in California, where nothing built before the 1800s was built to last, the concept of going to a building that has stood for 500-700 years is utterly foreign to me and my only possible comment on the video is "Wow. Pretty stone buildings." BTW, thank you for not re-recording the outro. It got a chuckle out of me.

Your pronunciation of ‘Llywelyn’ was perfect!! I know that for people outside Wales, the ‘Ll’ sound can be a hard thing to do

I visited Wales in college. It really is crazy how different it is from even western England. Saw a Best Western in a castle, ruined castles by the highway...Amazing!

There are the remains TWO ruined forts in my village in West Wales, literally on opposite hills. You could probably shout from one and be heard on the other.

love how he references Guy Fawkes (also known as John Johnson, who does work at place) in this

This look into the castles of Wales was fascinating. The closest things we have nowadays are military bases and forts, but they are not nearly as pretty as the castles were. Castles were so unique because they basically combined a fort and a walled city into one thing.

I’m welsh and I never really thought much about them outside of they are apart of our country’s history. I grew up seeing one from my window and just anytime I was going just about anywhere school, work, shopping everywhere. I even remember playing tag and hid and seek as a kid at the castle 10 minutes down the road. I always forget how this part of are history is so unique to us and how people visiting must see them.

Loved this video. I tell you castles are EVERYWHERE. I can literally see one from my bedroom window, and the next two towns either side of my village have caslte ruins. I grew up among them, and I have to remind myself that not everyone is so familiar with them as a background object. They really are wonderful

Since we’re talking about “British countries that aren’t England”, I would absolutely love to at some point see a video in The Isle of Man, lot of interesting mythology and history to look into there

As a kid, whenever I went around the country with my family on our summer holidays, I would always find our visit to local castles to be the highlight of our trips 😊

Great video, Blue; it's great learning about Welsh history. Awesome quality video as always. As a Cornish person, I especially appreciated the gradual reduction in English control heading down the West-Country peninsula in your maps. A lot of people always forget that, much like the Welsh, the Cornish were an independent people until quite a way after the Norman Conquest. EDIT- The Welsh are still an independent people, but you get my point.

Speaking as someone from the town of caerphilly, castles to us welsh are such a normal everyday thing that I feel people don’t appreciate how weird it must be for everyone else 😅. I personally love your videos on history. (Particularly further back you go) keep up the amazing vids ❤

I've got a castle literally other side of my back garden. A Norman motte and bailey built on the remains of a Roman fort! It's pretty destroyed, with only cracked outer walls and a renovated motte but it's a great place for town events with the open bailey and motte hill for sledging.

I have Welsh family, so I spent a lot of time in North Wales as a kid and if places like Conway and Caernarfon didn't spark my love of history/fantasy, I'm not sure what did.

being Welsh myself, I always forget castles aren't the norm, there's one literally a ten minute walk away from my place xD

Ayyy, love seeing my home mentioned online. Living here all my life, I sometimes forget its not normal for most to commute past roman ruins or a 14th century castle on their way to work. It's nice seeing my friends' reactions to them, especially.

OMG, being Dutch, this rings so true. Even though we fight over every square inch of land in our country, we still have tons of castles around here and looking into their history is soooo cool! They even preserved a small motte in the village I go to high school! I think any European who lives near castles can confirm.

I would love a History Summarized of the Celts. I was trying to watch a doc about them but it was very dry and boring. It was talking about mainland Europe and since I grew up only knowing about Celts in the British Isles I was interested to learn more. I would like to learn it from someone more interesting though. :)

as someone currently writing a homebrew campaign this video has solved my biggest problem, naming things like castles and forts. And problem solved less than two minutes into the video. Thank you Blue. I woke up today with a migraine so bad I was throwing up so this video has really turned my day around.

It’s always great to see more videos about wales, especially loved the spotlight on Caerphilly Castle because I live in Caerphilly. Hope you enjoyed visiting the town.

I went to Wales when I was 19 and my kid self was absolutely thrilled at the castles that were literally everywhere

Diolch yn Fawr! It’s so lovely to see a RU-vid channel you follow do not only one - but two videos directly about your little country!

As a kid I always found Newport Castle to be cool since it was just beside the road where we'd drive by next to the roundabout

It's no wonder the ruins of stone castles inspired both the Gothic architectural movement, and the later Gothic literary tradition. That kind of desolate beauty stirs up so much emotion, one cannot but fixate on it. Especially in poetry and prose, where the ghosts of people (real, imagined, or embellished) can be raised up to tell their stories (again, real or imagined or embellished).

Who hopes Red talks about the Myth where Hera gets beaten up by a Spartan Queen, the Myth about the Chinese Femboy defeating the four dragons, or the myth where a Aztec god was tricked into sleeping with their sister

They are also a sign of the fighting Heart of the British (Welsh) people, many love to use the term conquered dar too easy and far too often. When the occupation of Wales for around 150 years was anything but easy.

I went to university in Aberystwyth. Saw a LOT of these beautiful fortresses during my time there. Wales is such a beautiful place

Fun fact: Scotland has over 2,500 castles, at least if you count ones where there is some form of tangible remains (even just an earthen ditch or mound). I've been to 450 so far. If the OSP team ever wants a resident tour or expert, I'll be right here! 🏰🏰🏰

I live in Cardiff and the castles always blow me away. I love that they host Concerts in the castle grounds!! Saw primal scream last year. Its great the castles are alive and get used

I have Welsh ancestry and studied in Swansea for a semester in college, and I adored the fact that there were so many castles to visit!

I visited a friends in Wales, once, and it's absolutely bonkers the way they just... *have castles.* Like, it's just part of the scenery, as far as they're concerned. When we had some time to burn, we went back and forth over what to do, until they just went "Hey, we could go visit the castle, if you're interested?" Because of course they had a castle. Apparently, anywhere you may be in Wales, you've got a castle within walking-distance.

The castle of Wales are what inspired my love of history as a child. They're granduer, history and beauty is really something to behold. In fact I went to Caerphilly castle 4 weeks ago and it was absolutely stunning, and I got a free guide book to boot.

I sang in Caerphilly castle's hall as a child and ive never heard acoustics like it anywhere else.

Being Welsh, its so easy to take castles for granted and not be overawed by their existence like, say, Americans are. Like, as a little kid I was often taken to Coity Castle and Ogmore Castle, so to me castle ruins have always been normal and just a thing that's there; they're pretty much just part of the background scenery like trees, and hills and even normal ass houses. Don't think I've ever heard that pronunciation of Caerphilly before; I've live ~20miles from it for nearly 35 years and fairly sure I've only heard it pronounced more like 'cuh-philly' than 'car-philly'. Wonder if this is just a regional thing within Wales or if Blue misheard/misremembered it.

I guess it falls outside of the scope of this video, but the more modern parts of Cardiff Castle are also breathtaking. I visited it years ago and had the absolute time of my life marveling at the apartment where the old inhabitants actually lived, where each room was designed with a different theme by a mad interior designer. Adding to the sense of Living History, the outer wall of Cardiff Castle was hollowed out and used as a bomb shelter during WW2. This medieval castle built on the site of a Roman fort saw use in war in the 20th century.

Wow! Never thought I'd see Ogmore Castle pop up in an OSP vid! I grew up right next to it! It's so nice seeing this special attention given to the lovely castles here in Wales. :D Thanks Blue!

I grew up in Caldicot, a small town just 5 miles from the English border right on the south coast, and it has a lovely (mostly intact) small castle there, with large grounds surrounding it. I used to love playing in the fields when I was a kid. They even did medieval banquets at night. The strange thing is that it's just a couple of miles from Caerwent, one of the biggest Roman camps, so it could easily be assumed that Caerwent would be where any new fortification was built. Yet, even though a Normal motte and baily was built there, it was Caldicot where the stone castle was built.

It's always very strange to watch foreigners talk about my country because I regard where I live to be very ordinary but this video gave me a new perspective on my local area, so thanks!

This channel (both your work and Red’s work) are the only RU-vid channel in my internet experience where I genuinely watch your new content less than an hour after it comes out

1:00 I understood (and appreciated) that reference :D John Johnson, you're a real jokester.

I adore the videos on Welsh history, since as a Welsh person, it's astounding that we never got taught about it. We'd learn the history of individual castles if we went to visit a particularly fancy one where they have little historical signposts and sometimes guides (Caernarfon and Conwy springs to mind), but there'd be a bunch of names swung around like Llewellyn who me and many other folks just didn't know. My history lessons started at the Norman conquest, and it was just kind of assumed that Welsh history was just English history. This was only broken when I came to University, where they had modules in Welsh history, most of which I didn't take because I just assumed it was English history with a few fancy embellishments. Even in the beloved show of my childhood, Horrible Histories, I remember little eight-year-old me getting very distinctly salty because when they were covering England's conquest like a weather report, I remember looking at the graphic one moment where it was England, then the next it covered Wales without a word said about it. Meanwhile, they did detail how Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into the UK, and proudly called it the United Kingdom after they breezed over one of said United Kingdoms. Especially here, like many a fellow countryman has said, castles are just normal in Wales, you see them everywhere. I regularly square up to my local castle, sit and watch the waves as I'll eat noodles or chips or something to that effect, with friends. It's really cool! And it's really cool to hear it from someone else's perspective. So, yeah, I really love hearing about Welsh history on here from time to time. It's refreshing, and really interesting, and I hope that other folks, Welsh or otherwise find it as epic and cool as I do. tl;dr - Welsh history is neat, I wasn't taught it particularly in the area of Wales I'm from, so it's neat hearing about castles and other bits and bobs from someone else.

To add to Blue's intro: there's a distinction between people from the New World and from the Old World. Speaking as a European (would love to have folks from Asia or Africa confirm or deny the feeling), castles and other ancient fortresses or palaces no longer in use may fascinate people from the American continent because they aren't part of the cultural landscape/geographic consciousness there. Not saying I don't find castles cool - I'm a medieval history student - but in the US (which is where I lived for a bit), the closest things you have to a physical connection to the medieval era are museum exhibits, or at worst, Medieval Times and those "bougie 1800s/1900s castles".

To ease your conflict a little. Built heritage is allowed to change and still be significant. If we left everything to rot, it would rot. The important part is preserving the methods with which it's constructed, and using them where reasonable and safe to do so. The idea that built heritage is dependent on the original materials is kind of a Eurocentric take on cultural resource management. Mostly because not all old buildings are made out of as sturdy stuff as stone; and their histories are just as valid. Now, this reconstruction was likely done before we had ideas about how these things should be done, so I wouldn't say it did things perfectly, but like you said; there's a full castle there now; and that's pretty cool.

I live in Bridgend, South Wales. There are 4 castles within a 5-10 mile radius of us, it’s crazy that something so normal to us is really fascinating to others. Great video

I live in wales and the castles are so normal that they're just part of the landscape that you don't pay attention to. Swansea castle is right in the middle of the city at the top of the street where all the big clubs are but people are less interested in the ruins than the maccies opposite it (with good reason). I've gone on trips to beaches and just found a named castle ruin in a field on the way. Last year I went to a Halloween experience in of one of the better kept castles and being able to theme the entire place really made me notice it for a change. Then again there have been times where I've driven down a quiet road and just seen a 5000 year old structure in a field that I just stop to go and look at. These things are everywhere

When I visited Wales a few years ago, I got to visit two English castles (Harlech and Caernarfon, although the latter was closed by the time we got there) and two Welsh ones (Dolbadarn and Criccieth). Of the four, Dolbadarn was actually my favorite, despite being the smallest and one of the least well-preserved I saw. It's small enough you could probably fit the whole thing inside the courtyard of Harlech or Caernarfon, but the location makes it so much cooler. Picture a long, narrow mountain valley lined with steep hillsides, one side dominated by a massive slate quarry. Two long lakes run down the valley, a narrow strip of land in the middle separating them. It is atop a hill on that strip of land that Dolbadarn sits, a singular, ruined tower jutting into the sky, framed by the surrounding hillsides of the valley - even just seeing it from the parking lot with a Welsh flag fluttering on a flagpole in the foreground was a site to behold. I can definitely recommend it if you ever visit Northern Wales. The Welsh Slate museum is also right nearby, which is way cooler than it sounds. The area is pretty, and not as inundated with tourists as the bigger castles are wont to be. There's few things that beat hiking up a trail through the woods by yourself to reach a castle at the top of the hill.

As a welshmen, this video makes me happy.

We in Wales totally take for granted the fact we have these incredible medieval structures just dotted all over the place. People come from abroad and are blown away by them, but they're so common here, we don't really appreciate how remarkable it is that they're all still standing after 700-900 years, many in great condition.

Thanks for the love! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Gwlad! There are more 'complete' *ish castles surviving as rendering them 'useless' was often just knocking through a couple of walls, and many that weren't considered as important were left, saved as homes or through bribery and even attempts to hide them (more like the paper trail, though the thought of saying "nothing to see here but my winter fuel stack of logs... 30 ft high 😂 One does find that living with castles in practically every town (and more) and i HAVE gone to work daily in a castle and used such spaces as parks and such places for public events and activities... But they remain strongholds of fantasy and history, one might no longer look up every time in awe, but peering through an arrow loop or winding your way up another spiral staircase, the magic returns, especially if one is looking for it!

Most of the Castles in Wales were already built by the time the Normans conquered England and gazed westwards to Wales. Cardiff being originally built by the Britons to commemorate the Romano-British peace treaty. This is the real reason why 1. The Vikings couldn’t do anything to Wales, and why it took the Later Normans a couple of hundred years. The “Norman” castle were all built atop of the far older British ones. Take the Castle in Newport for example, it’s said to be from the 11th century, however, that doesn’t explain why it is mentioned several times a couple of hundred years prior to its supposed founding.

"Matchy shapes make happy brain go brr"...it's the deference to technical language that really makes me excited for Blue's videos.

Conwy Castle and Conwy/Llandudno in general is absolutely stunning. Would highly recommend. You can take the train there (took the train from Glasgow and it was actually quicker than driving down)

I’m half Welsh, and grew up in england, only ever visiting to see my nan in the countryside for a week every year/ few years. recently I’ve been interested in learning more about Wales and the language, especially now that my dad has a house there!! I’ve been really enjoying your guys’ Welsh oriented videos, and I adore castles so this video was amazing timing!!!!!

It was one of my favourite things as a kid growing up in Wales, being able to visit castles all the time like it was a regular Tuesday. I grew up in Flintshire so Ewloe castle was a regular wander spot when I was bored, Caergwrle castle became a picnic spot on days where we went to Wrexham for shopping, Hawarden castle was visited every month for a walk, freaking Moel Famau was the view from my bedroom window, (and even if it's cheating, having Chester's Roman walls nearby is always a treat to walk along). Being able to enjoy this history and nature so easily and regularly really gave me a love for walking, which I appreciate in my adulthood as a mentally ill person who has no motivation to get a gym membership, but also as a cheap date idea. Plus, you can't beat the nature walks in Wales as well. Almost every afternoon after school when the weather was good was spent walking through Loggerheads in Denbighshire. Just.... You can probably tell I miss it so much. I live in Liverpool city centre now, and I love this city and it has my heart, but a part of me will always long to return to my homeland.

I'm from North Wales! We have some bangin' castles, especially Harlech, Beaumaris and Conwy!

It means so much to see the castle of my hometown (Abergavenny) featured on OSP 🥰

According to a guide I spoke to at Caerphilly when I visited, the reason big chunks of the castle have collapsed wasn't due to the cannonry of the English Civil War. Rather, the moats around the castle were sustained by artificial means, and there was a period where the water inflow was diverted elsewhere, draining the moats. Over time, the soil upon which Caerphilly was built started to dry out, shifting as it did so. Causing chunks of the castle to shift too, cracking and crumbling and sinking in the process. Nowadays the moats have been refilled with water, and the soil has stopped shifting. So the castle is unlikely to suffer any further damage of that kind. But it remains fascinating to me, that the simple process of waterlogged earth drying out could destroy such a colossal structure. Look on my works, ye mighty...

Excellent pronunciation of Llywelyn!

I visited Conwy Castle in Wales… it was such a beautiful and informing experience. I highly recommend it to anybody.

I visit my grandfather in Wales very often and have seen so many castles. I was watching this video getting excited whenever i saw one ive been to.

Very cool vid, the way you describe the feeling of walking into history when going into a castle is spot on! Like to see you do one on the Netherlands haha the Romans referred to us as swampy people that scavenge the shores during low tide

If you ever get to north England, you MUST check out Skipton Castle. It's a Grade 1, 11th century medieval castle that's one of the most well preserved in the UK. I visited last year and it blew me away

Although I think these castle look great and I’d love to visit one, I prefer and definitely advise to visit the castles along the Mittelrheintal (Middle Rhine Valley) here in Germany. They’re mostly open for visitors, some are still inhabited and in my opinion look cooler. Also I just love that two castles, who were built on the hills directly across the river are named Burg Katz (Castle Cat) and Burg Maus (Castle Mouse).

"Matchy shapes make happy brain go 'brrrr!'" Yeah, I can see that. Personally, I like the aesthetic of castles and buildings that look like they started with symmetry in mind, but then got added to as needs arose.

I seem to recall while looking into medieval building practices that it is often unclear exactly how medieval buildings were planned and work done etc. As I recall there are records from one Welsh castle in the medieval period that give a sense of how many workman were employed and so give some insight into the basic logistics. An odd Norman castle is the one at Norwich, it was reclad in the 19th century and was continuously used for various things (it was a jail) throughout history, it is now a museum. I think it may be one of the few classic Norman castles from the period still standing even if it was heavily rebuilt at various times subsequent to 1066 and all that.

Love your videos!! Would you be interested in doing an episode on Cornwall? We're also a very ancient celtic kingdom but since we were conquered by the English we don't get much attention. Would be so cool to see my homeland talked about by my favourite channel!

That last picture shot of the castle and the lights was gorgeous. I suppose there’s something magical about history, even though its nature is mundane.

that blues videos never make most watched is a tragedy. These are amazing

You've really done our corner of the world proud, Blue, diolch yn fawr. Living in Manchester but with family in North Wales, I spent many a summer stomping around castles like Beaumaris and Caernarfon. Thanks for stating that the Welsh made castles as well as the Normans and English because this is often something that's glossed over. Welsh-built castles that come to mind include Dolbadarn and Criccieth :)

Ah, the Marquess of Bute... a name you'll be absolutely sick to the teeth of seeing on plaques if you tour the castles of South Wales. There's seemingly not a single one he didn't get his hands on at some point. It really is wild how tightly packed the castles are in the former Marches. In just the Swansea area alone, there's six of them.

Born in the UK and live in New Zealand and I do miss just having so much history as part of daily life everywhere you go and it's just normal, castles everywhere and buildings hundreds of years old still in use

I love welsh history! It’s a interesting country because it’s evolved yet remained strong. I learned welsh so if I do ever visit I may be able to read certain manuscripts

You uploaded this as soon as I got back from my holiday to Conwy

I just got back from studying abroad in Cardiff and I definitely had to get used to all the castles that are just a casual part of the landscape. But it was really cool! And it was nice to see pictures in the video from places I have actually seen in real life, that normally doesn`t happen to me

These OSP History Summarized videos are always something I look forward to.

I can appreciate this video SO MUCH! Castles are so cool but now we need a video on Parisian castles. Might I recommend The Clooney museum, a reconfigured castle now museum?

Castle Rushen on the Isle of Man is almost perfectly preserved. The foundation is actually viking. When you walk in they have a model of the castle colour coded to what parts were added when

You absolute legends, thank you guys for posting this.

Marquess of Bute: *reconstructs Caerphilly Castle* Blue: I'm sickened, but curious...

There are a few castles in Wales and the borders that were part renovated as residences around the 1900's and at least one (St Breivals) is now a backpackers/youth hostel. During the summer its an overnight stop off point for cyclists and hikers, in the winter they do a roaring trade with re-enactors, larpers and steam punkers hiring it for events.

It’s so fun to see my country represented again! A lot of us who grew up here in wales were really used to castles - I’m from south west wales and basically every town and village has a castle, and there’s a bunch out in the countryside too! So to us they feel super normal 😂

This is a wonderful video. Would you be able to do one about Predjama castle in Slovenia, also? It’s built into a huge cave 😮

Growing up in Britain, the Castles are fantastic, so much history all over the place and it’s great, there’s a castle just 20 mins drive from where I grew up

As a kid I grew up in Kent, England and then moved to Wales, we didn't have holidays/vacations, but we did do trips to castles. Caerphilly castle is beautiful and I believe it's leaning tower has been that way since before the leaning tower of Pisa. Castle Coch (The Red Castle) pronounced cock) is another favourite.

"Power, Peril, and more than a little Prettiness" is now officially the inspiration for my next dnd character

I tend to forget Americans in general do not have a lot of contact with historical buildings older than 200 years. These videos help reminding me how lucky we are in that sense here in the old world.

I went to visit family in N Wales only a few months ago and saw the castles at Caernarfon, Baeumaris, and Conwy. They are just as beautiful and intimidating as they felt when I was a kid, and its amazing to see how the history of my country is being kept alive. Thank you for putting it on the world stage so more can know the Welsh as more than England's garden.

What a wonderful video on the awesomeness of Wales. Thanks Blue! I'm so glad you enjoyed your time here! 😀 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

As a Welsh person, I gotta say that I'm really impressed. You're always so good and respectful in your videos, Blue. You should look into Newport Castle. Absolutely travesty. One of only two watergate castles in Britain (the other being the tower of London) and they tore down half of it to build a motorway.

I love how you started a video about Wales - which my family visited almost every year I was a teenager - with a picture of the fortress in Nürnberg, where I lived during the same time. Of all the castles in all the world... 😂

Brilliant Video. Thanks for putting our tenacious little country on the map

Growing up for a bit in Wales as a kid was a treat, just constant daytrips to the local castle (there's even a picture of the one I lived by in this video). On another note, love the way the English kings built all these things to try and hold the place and then every time there was a rebellion the Welsh just captured all of them and reverse-carded that shit.

Not only does Wales have a lot of castles, but thanks to its mountainous terrain making passage into the heart of the state treacherous at best and nigh impossible at worst, one could argue (and many poets and patriots have) that Wales IS a castle carved from the living rock by God himself. Which is why I will forever take pleasure in recounting how while all of my classmates were taking tours of Conwy Castle and Caernarvon Castle, my friend and I were riding the little steam trains of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways through God's Castle.

I've been to Caernarvon Castle. I've driven by some of the others shown here. There is something thrilling about coming in sight of a castle that has its flags flying.

As someone who's lived in Wales for the majority of my life and being born in Scotland, where there are also quite a lot of castles too 😅 I really enjoyed this ! Fun fact as well about Caerphilly Castle and the town of Caerphilly, they hold an event there called "The big cheese", a 3 day event where a giant wheel of cheese is pushed down an incredibly steep hill, where people run down after it, the winner I believe gets money and gets to keep the cheese 😄 not sure if they hold it anymore though because of covid. Which is a shame. There's multiple ginormous cheese tents with other unique food vendors, a big fair ground and medieval festival too. It's been many years since I went but I'm hoping it makes a come back !

Castles are a pretty good investment for just 850 stone.