I have a passion for Medieval history, and that includes castles. Want to know more than just 'oh, that is a pretty castle'? Curious about how people lived in their castles, what they did while they were there? Have an itch to know how castles were built?
Philip Davis has had a life-long passion for castles, and he has created the most comprehensive website on castles I have found.
See GATEHOUSE for answers to your questions about castles: who made them, how they were constructed, who tore them down, who rebuilt them; what archeological investigation has found at individual sites; where exactly they are located and so much more. Gatehouse is deep and extensive for factual information, including a comprehensive list of licenses to crenelate. Images of castles are from a bird's eye view. [For photographs of castles, see other websites such as Wikipedia or Castles of Wales, etc.]
Among the most exciting discoveries I have made in my investigations is that many of our ancestors were not only warriors, they were statesmen. They were not only capable of besieging a castle, they were capable of building one. The narrow view of the Medieval knight as a brutal and ignorant fighter who knows how to do only one thing is proven wrong over and over again, in the multitude of records showing how they built, they protected, they preserved.
Below is a modern picture of the remaining shell keep of Cardiff Castle, Wales, which was rebuilt in stone circa 1136 by Sir Robert earl of Gloucester, my 25th times great-grandfather.
Photograph by Jvhertum 1 Dec 2012, from Wikimedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Norman_keep_cardiff_castle.jpg
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
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