For me it's my childhood. I get to see the places I clambered around and played in. Where my imagination ran amok. And my sticky little hands touched everything. I would give my left nut to be back there. England truly is Gods own country. I'm trapped English diaspora, my father fell for the windrush population swap scam. They told them to 'do their duty' and because they had too many workers to 'go shore up the colonies' and gave them subsidised travel. At the same time Freddy Foreigner was being told "Oh come save Brit'un, you can be Bri'ish." and given subsidised travel. Straight out of the Hooton and Kalergi plans to genocide the Germanic peoples of Europe. So these English lads married English colonists daughters and poof, no right of return if your grandpa or father dies before you get a Bri'ish passport. 2/3rds of English are trapped diaspora. That's how you know the my gray shun (sorry, YT censorship will trigger on that word) isn't "needed" or they'd be letting us English back home. If it was needed, they have people who speak the language, share the culture, are the same literal indigenous people. But it's not about that at all, it's about genociding us in our ancestral homelands by slow displacement of endless scab labour. Driving down the living wage, driving up consumption and cost of living. The rich get richer beyond your comprehension, whilst we all get poorer and more disenfranchised than ever. At present serfs have more social mobility opportunity than we do today under the current global rulers. Sorry for the rant, just one thing led to another ... it just irks me that my entire culture is being eradicated, marginalized, and indigenous rights are being trampled worse than ever in human history with two tier policing and two tier policy making. And that the only way an Englishman can enjoy England is through videos another Englishman from the colonies is making as a tourist. *We need a reconquista.*
Thats everything when it comes to being a good teacher. I got 105% A+ in my Medieval History class because the Professor was so enthusiastic and made the lessons fun enough that I wanted to do the extra credit when I didn't need to. He had us watch that Clive Owen 'Arthur' movie and then write a paper on 5 things they got right and 5 things they got wrong. The final exam had bonus questions relating to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 😂 My Civics teacher in Highschool was the same. He made the most boring lessons enjoyable. I have this brain thing where I can't do well on something I don't care about and have no interest in, no matter how hard I studied. Why I know more about Middle Earth than actual Earth. 😂
THIS, is the kind of castle you think about by default when you think "castle". So many features you show off in this video that is almost NEVER otherwise shown or even hinted at. I mean, i've read about castle design enough to at least vaguely understand all you mention, and most of them well, but it's a huge difference seeing them directly instead of the representations or pictures that is commonly used. The double windows for example, how they actually were placed and worked, was very interesting to see. And the multiple in-wall corridor/tunnels, another feature rarely mentioned much less explained. Superb video. Absolutely loved it.
It's nice but the tribalism in wales right now is just too much... already this year we have yet more anglophobic nonsense out of some less education within wales... National pride seems to be connected to hate and revisionist history. There's a reason you don't see the english pushing nationalism...
@@edwardmedina1236It truly is, if you do ever come to Wales don't go to the cities but go to the countryside because that's the beautiful landscapes that you saw in this video
It really is captivating to listen to Shad just talking passionately about some nerdy topic for a whole video. In that way these castle videos feel like a throwback to the old format. Good stuff.
Yes, this is good 👍This and the videos where he covers topics he's done a ton of research for. That's why I subscribed. Not a fan of the testing videos. Spending 30 min hacking at a vest ffs.
Same, and it's doubly captivating for me, since my parents are Welsh and I spent my childhood visiting my Welsh grandparents at least once a year I know most of these North Welsh castles well, and to see Shad gushing over them is a warm feeling.
The raised ground inside The Queen's Gate is the mound of the motte of the motte and bailey castle that stood on the site prior to Edward's castle that we see today. In effect, James of St George built a revetment around the pre-existing motte which had been raised by the Earls of Chester in the late eleventh century.
It brightens my day to see a someone get excited about things that are wholesome and give a sense of pride in their ancestors history/culture. In the modern world there seems to be no room for joy anymore. Glad you had fun here in the UK Shad, we need more visitors like you who come with respect and care instead of hate and retribution.
@@jackjosh1981 Well, when he went with the Nerdrotic group to visit a castle, they all said that people were so interested in Shad's explanation of specific parts of the castle, that people actually started following them around.
@@jackjosh1981 I see you had to edit out the part of him being a narcissist. Well, given your long rant over my benign comments, I'll have to ask... Show me on the doll where the bad man touched you.
@jackjosh1981 Yep, knew you were unhinged. You go over to all of Shads videos, make the same sort actual narcissistic rants and then when you get a bit of push back, instantly call people a predator. You are the very definition of a psycho with narcissistic tendencies. Seriously, there is something very disturbed with you.
@@jackjosh1981 Are you talking about Coch Castle? Because Shad fully acknowledged it was a reconstruction. He simply said it was made in a way that it would still be quite defensible and close to an actual medieval castle, even if it's not really what the actual medieval castle there looked like. Also the remnants were quite a bit more than what you make it out to be: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Burges%27s_intent_for_Castell_Coch,_1874.png
this is engineering wise interesting but all stuff I have seen covered a million times. I would however watch this a dozen times to see anyone has excited, passionate and happy as shad is during this. I am glad you are living the dream man.
I'm in Ireland right now helping a local church assembly. In my free time I've gotten to see 4 castles, the best of which were bunratty and king johns castles. At King John's I got to climb up to the top of the turrets on the gatehouse which was the oldest part of the castle. Really incredible, and it was about 700 years older than my whole country too hahah. Castles are so incredible
Regarding the arrow slots 10 mins in. I'm willing to bet you're absolutely right. One of the biggest noob mistakes in modern combat is sticking your barrel out of windows. If you're trained, you stand at _minimum_ an arms length away between the window and the tip of your barrel. You can only point your barrel in a small angle at any one time, so why expose yourself to more angles of attack than necessary? Also, you're harder to see, spalling and ricochets are less dangerous, and finally, (Remember, the castle was sieged 3 times in the English civil war, which had plenty of gunpowder.) keeping your barrel far behind the hole keeps your smoke signature to a minimum. Many insurgents in the last 23 years lost their lives because they gave their position away with dust kicked up from sticking their barrels outside windows.
One thing to remember with a castle of that size and age, a lot of the defensive manpower/soldiers were actually housed inside the walls and towers, the Common rooms would've had fireplaces and areas to sit when not on guard or for the ready response sections when only wall guards are on the lookouts. Also the captain of the guard would have his residence in a tower, possibly with family rooms and an office that was accessible from the guard tunnels in the walls. Speaking of guard tunnels, this enabled men to respond around the walls to reinforce areas as well as to quickly man fighting position and as a resupply route for sheaves of arrows for the archers without exposing anyone to fire or vision from outside the walls and out of the weather where rain is the enemy of any archer, his bowstring and the fletches of the arrows.
I live very close to that castle, If you want any extra footage taking, for a follow up video, I'd be happy to oblige. The town walls themselves are quite interesting. This castle is also the origin of the title of the Prince of Wales. Anyways... let me know if you want to know more, happy to help.
I remember reading that King Edward’s castles in Wales were garrisoned largely by crossbowmen, and supplied with huge amounts of bolts. I think the book was “The Welsh Wars of King Edward I”. That might help explain the height and angles of some of those arrow loops.
That would fit well with the overall mechanism of the Welsh conquests - I'm just picturing how methodical the campaigns were, and how sensible it would be to add craftsmen building crossbows alongside the castles and roads they were putting up. Infrastructure can be both environmental and human.
Many years ago, I was lucky enough to fight inside its wall as part of a dark age reanactment group. Pitched tent on top of a hill in the dark and beset by beer demons, next mornings ' Brains' ( If you know, you know) hangover was dispelled by unzipping tent to see the bay, sea and castle at 6ish am in a summer morning. Stunning place
Same here, we stayed in Flint, Rhudlan, Denbigh and Beaumaris.....we also did Harlich, but camping in that castle was impractical due to the access to take equipment up the steep and narrow access ways
Been to Caernarfon twice and Shad still shared things I missed. It is just so big it is easy to overlook things if you don't take your time. I hope this means we'll also get some Harlech and Beaumaris videos soon.
These are my favorite type of Shad’s videos, and I feel would’ve done really well a few years ago. So it really bums me out that these aren’t getting the views they should
It's amazing how much material Shad's managed to get out of barely scratching the surface of Wales' castles! We do things properly here in the land of hill dragons!
Yes sure, built by an English king, but part of Wales' history. As an Englishman I've got a deep respect for the Welsh, they have some fantastic history of their own and I've always felt so welcome there when taking a holiday etc .
I had the good fortune and pleasure to visit Caernarfon 25 years ago. Back then, you could climb up in all those little tiny turrets. I hope you can still do that, it's one of the most amazing features of the castle. Being able to see the harbor, straight of Anglesey, the old town, medieval town wall, and the castle itself from up there is breathtaking. One of these days, I hope to come back
Interesting to see the positions of the turrets. Not up on the outside of the towers, but usually on the interior. Which makes sense given that they're the primary stairwells. Also, it provides excellent coverage of the battlements if they get topped. You'd have difficulty avoiding fire from them even if you were inside the hoardings
This is so cool!!! Been wanting to visit Caernarfon Castle for years. And sounds even better than I imagined. I really hope there are more castle reviews coming up!❤
I didn't get to explore Wales in my own adventure across Great Britain last year, but these videos make me feel homesick, for lack of a better description. Really enjoying these, Shad. Thank you for sharing 'em.
Hey Shad, Tody, in the mail, I finally got the leather-bound comic and leather-bound book (with the trading cards) of your book: Shadow of the Conquer. I just finished reading the comic in one sitting and loved every second of it is a great story, very engaging and awesome!!! I can't wait to start reading the Novel itself. Definitely 100% worth the wait.
Interestingly enough, I have been on a Shadiversity binge lately watching the backlogs. Because of that I keep getting recommendations of people reviewing his book. My goodness, do people not give it a good review. They say it's jam pack full SA and so on that it makes it disgusting. How is your take on it?
Interestingly enough, I have been on a Shadiversity binge lately watching the backlogs. Because of that I keep getting recommendations of people reviewing his book. My goodness, do people not give it a good review. They say it's jam pack full SA and so on that it makes it disgusting. How is your take on it?
no kidding that is monstrous. I would like to see more about how they distributed water and food and housing for the army of staff it would take to run that thing. No wonder it became obsolete and they got rid of it. It's like an aircraft carrier, a sac base and a nuclear submarine all in one. The labor and maintenance would be immense. I enjoyed hearing the cries of the seagulls as you were speaking. Beautiful location. Thank you for all your hard work putting this together and you looked great in your tunic. I was surprised you had such good audio and good success with all the tourists around.
forts got bigger, not smaller, after castles. requiring more people to build, maintain and garrison. it became obsolete because of the nature of siege weapons, not because of manpower requirements.
The inner height often also means that there are an underground there. Where i live we have a couple of keep areas fairly close that's around 400+ years and such solutions can be seen there. Underground hallways and rooms made by flatting the area, building the rooms and such, then covering all with dirt before the rest of the buildings was made. Sadly a lot of such areas has been damaged by time so normal people can''t even get a look unless they know someone with the keys.
im loving this series of you visiting these real castles! Its giving me ideas for how I can continue to develop my fantasy world with beautiful and great castles, but keeping them as realistic as possible.
Caernarfon castle is my favourite out of all the North Wales castles. I had a friend visit from the US who wanted to see a castle, so I took him to Caernarfon castle. He thought the Queen's gate was the main part of the castle, but was utterly amazed when we pulled into the car park at the side of the castle & realised how impressive it actually is. I was a pleasure seeing him tour the castle & museum.
This is the first time I run across your channel . It was a wonderful experience and I learned so much here. Thank you so much and i'm gonna look for more.😮
Incidentally, the 'tower within a tower' design also helps with insulation, its not much since its just air, but it is something asides from a solid stone wall and the raw elements on the other side of it.
It's so cool to see someone so excited about something that I've always found so normal in my life (I mean it's still cool, but having been to many castles from a young age, it's not that special or anything). Logically, of course there are no castles in Australia, so for an Australian it would be very special. As someone from western Europe having been to at least 1 castle on almost every vacation I've been on, I just never kind of really thought about that before, that for most people seeing a castle would be a rare sight. That someone like Shad had never actually seen a castle in real life before this trip just feels so odd to me. I also really like that you're blurring the other people in the video. You absolutely didn't have to do that, but chose to do it anyway. Respect.
Disease (especially dysentery) killed more soldiers than weapons. A clean water source was critical, and most castles and other fortifications simply didn't have enough clean water. Food and water are the most important things in a siege. Or any fortification really. That holds true even today, even though it doesn't come up very often. But when it does, it's hell.
Watching house-hunter Shad explore the features of this apartment complex was a lot of fun! 😉 Anyone else find it hilarious that the caretakers located a park bench in the kitchen so people could enjoy the view of a former spitroast?
I love seeing your enthusiasm, Shad. And your unparalleled knowledge. I've been absolutely fascinated by castles since primary school, when I saw my first film on how they were built. The engineering is absolutely marvelous. I'd bet any modern firm would be hard-pressed to build outnof raw stone, like this. Absolutely amazing tradecraft. The masonry, itself would give mr joyous fits for weeks! Thank you for sharing this wonderful xastle with us! ❤️🏰
My nan lived within the walled town of the castle so as a kid I loved visiting my nan . I've grown up being obsessed with castles and try and visit at least 10 different castles every year. Caernarfon is one of my favourite castles and over the years I must have visited it 20 times at least.Great video .
I wish all castle tours were like this - enthusiastic, interesting, and first and foremost informative (true information that is, not myths and misconceptions supported by modern media). People might even stop looking down on medieval folk and start appreciating their true ingenuity. Thank you Shad. 🧡👏
Such a thoughtful tour! I love your videos and the excitement and authenticity of your experience! I feel like I am there with you! This was super neat to watch! Thank you for sharing!!
Visited Caernarfon in 2017. Amazing experience. It’s been restored to very good condition, so much to explore. Rental car mirrors just fit inside the citadel gate. Then a few pints and a lamb pie at the Black Buoy. From the top of one of the towers, looking across the Menai Strait, made me long for a drive on Anglesey. I’ll be back!
I built a paper model of this castle when I was 10 then again when I turned 40. Thanks so much for the detailed tour of a place I've loved for 30 years!
Great video. Spent most of my summer holidays there. As my father is from Caernarfon we had free access to the castle so went in every year. When you showed the old town wall that was Hole in the Wall Street, my relatives live there in 3 of the houses next door to each other.
Talking about the raised level inside of the queens gate, it was interesting to read a comment that the mount is actually covering the remains of an older castle. Also one benefit of this raised are inside the castle that wasn't mention would be the how the portion of the wall that mound is inside of would be impossible to break even with seige equipment.
The banding in the walls of Caernarvon Castle is supposedly a visual pun, a reference to the banding in the Roman walls of Constaninople. Marc Morris talks about how _The Dream of Maxen Wledig_ -- a Welsh folktale version of the life of a late-Roman general stationed in Britainnia -- was popular at Edward's court. Rome, Wales; clear connection. And Constantinople is at one end of Europe, Caernarvon at the other end. So let's make the big new castle look like a Roman fort. Oh, how they must have sensibly chuckled at that one.
I so wish i was there with you, i know abit about Caernarfon Castle, like the walls were based on the walls of constantinople both the two tone stone work and the not circle towers and much more but im glad you enjoyed visiting one of the most impressive castles of Wales/England
Dear Shad, My toddler loves your channel and videos. Especially the ones where you are very animated and sometimes silly or the takes don't go exactly how you planned. Thank you so much for this content.
Such “tunnels” are properly called casements. Rheinsfeld Castle in Germany has them as did several others throughout Western Europe. Sadly, most of those in Germany were slighted if not outright destroyed by Napoleon.
