Castles Secrets Mysteries and Legends Episode 1 United Kingdom
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00:00Fortress, prisons, towers, the castles have witnessed our history for centuries.
00:29In Europe, over a hundred thousand are still standing, thousand years later.
00:40Let's visit the most spectacular and most mysterious castles.
00:46We will discover the secrets that are hidden behind their walls.
00:52And we will relive their long-lasting legends.
00:59BOODIUM CASTLE
01:04BOODIUM CASTLE
01:25Observing Boodium Castle from the sky at dawn is one of the most beautiful images we can contemplate.
01:34Is this a real image? Or an illusion?
01:41At Boodium, nothing is exactly what it seems.
01:50Rising out of the water, surrounded by reflections that are both mysterious and evocative,
01:58Boodium Castle was built in the 14th century using a marvellous trick.
02:07A trick that has been used for centuries in architecture, painting and photography,
02:15and which goes by the name of forced perspective.
02:20FORCED PERSPECTIVE
02:23Forced perspective is a very clever architectural trick which is used to make a castle appear bigger than it actually is.
02:30It was something that was done by the owner, Sir Edward Dallin Grigg,
02:34to prove that he was bigger, more important perhaps, than he actually was.
02:39And why would anyone want to use a visual trick with such a beautifully designed castle?
02:47So he was using trickery to fool advancing enemies into thinking it was a much bigger castle.
02:53And we also see that it's surrounded by a huge moat.
02:56And again, this was reflecting back the size of the castle in the waters,
03:01creating a much bigger impression than was actually physically there.
03:07Built in 1385, it occupies a strategic position in the county of Sussex.
03:16Back then, the River Rover was navigable up to this point.
03:23And the kingdom lived in fear of a French invasion.
03:29When you see it for the first time, the castle makes an impression.
03:34Its imposing grey stone battlements, surrounded by a wide moat,
03:40in which the reflections increase the sensation of power,
03:44convince you that you are looking at a redoubtable fortress.
03:49This visual trick with the water is enhanced by the height of the battlements
03:54and the fact that they are close together.
03:57This makes the castle seem bigger and more robust than it actually is.
04:08If you look at the battlements on the top,
04:11you can see that the castle has been built in the middle of a moat.
04:16If you look at the battlements on the top,
04:19they're actually smaller than they would need to be in real life,
04:22as are the windows on the upper stories.
04:24And this creates the illusion of them being farther away,
04:27and thus of the building being higher than it actually is.
04:32Everything is a question of appearances, and that is Bodium's great secret.
04:38It has very little defensive capability.
04:43When you see its battlements up close, they are indeed small.
04:48And its interior is more akin to a private residence at the time than to a fortress.
04:58The castle itself is actually really small.
05:01It's a very, very minute, almost like a manor house,
05:04but the walls cast over the water just give it this false perspective
05:10and enable the viewer to think that it's much more big
05:13and much more impressive than it actually is.
05:18However, Bodium has some great innovations to make the most of its size.
05:26Its owner, Sir Edward Dallingrigg,
05:29drew on his experience in the war with France to import a number of details.
05:35Inside, we find an extraordinary curiosity.
05:40The water wells.
05:45There were wells in the centre of each tower.
05:48One theory has it that this was to enable access to an abundant supply of water
05:55for boiling and pouring over enemies from the walls,
05:59or from the murder holes in the main halls if they managed to get in.
06:06But also for survival.
06:17The main entrance to the castle was not the one we see today.
06:22The walkway started from one side, which meant you had to turn through 90 degrees to enter.
06:28This prevented enemies from attacking the main door
06:31with burning carts launched in a straight line.
06:35The design of the main towers made it possible to defend against invaders attacking along the walkway.
06:47More than for its legends or its beautiful exterior,
06:51Bodium has gone down in history, according to the experts,
06:55as the castle of false appearances.
06:58Although there is nothing false about its beauty.
07:14Nestling in kilometres of green countryside,
07:21with its unique pointed towers,
07:25Glamis Castle looks like a fairytale castle.
07:34However, above and beyond the 1,001 luxuriously decorated rooms,
07:40and the fact that it has been the residence of members of the royal family,
07:46this fortress conceals nooks and crannies
07:49where demonic legends and sinister stories lie in wait.
07:55Glamis Castle has an extraordinary history.
07:58It's one of the most haunted castles in the British Isles.
08:04The origins of Glamis Castle date back to the 14th century,
08:10after Robert the Bruce, one of the most venerated leaders of Scottish independence,
08:16ceded the land to the Bowes-Lyon family.
08:21In the 14th century, the Lyon family owned Glamis Castle,
08:25but that became the Bowes-Lyon family in the mid-18th century,
08:29and the Bowes-Lyons were very important.
08:32That's because Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
08:35was actually the mother of Queen Elizabeth II of England.
08:41As the centuries went by, the humble original tower was extended
08:47until it became the fortress we see today...
08:52..which still belongs to the same family.
09:01One of Glamis' most harrowing legends dates back 200 years,
09:07with the birth of the first son in the family line.
09:15What should have been happy news became a dark, tragic story.
09:22Thomas Lyon Bowes was born as the master of Glamis,
09:27which is the title of the eldest son, in 1821.
09:33And...
09:35..on his records, it says that he was born and died on the same day.
09:41And there has been a suspicion that, actually, he didn't.
09:47The dark recesses of Glamis Castle
09:50still conceal this secret in their depths.
09:53The story of what became known as the Monster of Glamis.
09:57A child who, it seems,
10:00may have been born with a deformity.
10:05And that there was a hideous birth
10:10and that they tried to disguise this but kept him alive.
10:17Why was he imprisoned?
10:19Some say it was because he was born deformed.
10:22Somebody even described him as being half-man, half-frog.
10:27And this terrible creature was kept locked up in the castle
10:31so as not to come into its true inheritance.
10:42Glamis became immersed in darkness and the most deathly silence.
10:47It is not easy to hide something like this in a castle of this size,
10:52which, despite having many lounges, staircases and rooms,
10:57also has a lot of serving staff.
11:01And so the legend grew and became an open secret.
11:07It's possible that this human prisoner, this Monster of Glamis,
11:11was once discovered by a maid,
11:14but to prevent her from telling anyone, she had her tongue cut out
11:18and she's said to be seen walking the grounds,
11:20holding on to her mutilated mouth, dripping with blood.
11:32Glamis has an imposing presence.
11:35Its carefully tended gardens have an elegant appearance,
11:40but every turn may conceal a chilling tale.
11:45Glant Castle has a reputation of one of the most haunted castles
11:49in Scotland, perhaps even in the world,
11:52and there are so many legends connected with it,
11:54it's difficult to choose any particular one.
11:57One of these macabre legends is that of Earl Beardy,
12:01a cruel aristocrat known for his love of gambling.
12:06Beardy is said to have been a violent and a dangerous man.
12:09He was also an alcoholic and a gambler.
12:12One night he was gambling at cards with a friend of his, Earl Crawford,
12:16and the night was getting late.
12:18His steward warned him and he said,
12:20Sir, it is nearly midnight and tomorrow is the Sabbath.
12:23Beardy knew that he shouldn't gamble on a Sunday,
12:26but he said, I will gamble until doomsday.
12:28I will even gamble with the devil himself.
12:32The legend has it that the devil did indeed appear to play cards with him.
12:38When the clock struck midnight,
12:40there was a knock at the door and a tall stranger appeared.
12:44The steward left them to it,
12:46and there were soon noises, shouting, violence and struggle.
12:50He came down in the morning.
12:52The stranger was still there watching,
12:54and Earl Beardy and Earl Crawford had been engulfed in a ball of flame.
12:59It's said that that stranger really was the devil
13:02and that Beardy and Crawford had gambled away their souls.
13:07The castle has been haunted to this very day
13:10with the sounds of Beardy and Crawford struggling with the devil.
13:18Some people claim that centuries later,
13:21the devil and Earl Beardy are still playing in a secret room in Glamis Castle
13:27and that the impassioned screams of a card game,
13:30whose stakes were life and death, can still be heard.
13:37EERIE MUSIC
13:42How many generations of earls and countesses
13:46have heard the truculent stories of Glamis?
13:49How many secrets have been told in hundreds of aristocratic dinners?
13:56The walls of Glamis are full of secrets,
13:59and they will continue to be for a few centuries more.
14:06EERIE MUSIC
14:16In our imaginations,
14:18we probably all make a very direct link between medieval castles,
14:23knights, invaders and legends.
14:31Bambrough Castle is the perfect example.
14:36EERIE MUSIC
14:39Bambrough, built in the north-east of England in the 5th century,
14:43overlooking the North Sea,
14:46has witnessed Viking invasions and wars for power.
14:53The history of Bambrough goes right back,
14:56and in 547,
14:59Ida, who was king of the Berneseans,
15:03conquered Bambrough,
15:05and he probably conquered it from the islands off the shore,
15:08Lindisfarne and the Farne Islands.
15:11And he made a stockade there.
15:14Then, 50 years later or so,
15:17his descendant, King Æthelfrith,
15:21gave it to his wife, Bebba,
15:24and it's from her name that we get Bambrough.
15:28Bebbanburgh gives us Bambrough.
15:34The location of this enormous fortress
15:37was considered a historically strategic spot
15:40for the defence of the island by its different civilisations.
15:45The Normans then built a castle on this site,
15:48and it's their tower that forms
15:51the basis of the modern castle that we see today.
15:54This presence and importance was perhaps the reason
15:58why Bambrough also took centre stage
16:01in the greatest legend in medieval history,
16:04the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
16:09It's also believed that Bambrough Castle
16:12might be the castle that belonged to Lancelot,
16:15one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.
16:18It's said that Lancelot went there and he defeated 20 other knights
16:22in a very famous night called the Copper Night,
16:25and he named that castle Joyous Guard.
16:29This idea comes from the novel Le Morte d'Arthur,
16:34written in 1469,
16:37in prison by a knight who had fallen from grace called Thomas Mallory.
16:47Since then, Bambrough has maintained its reputation
16:51as an icon of legends and mysteries,
16:54partly because of its imposing image
16:57in a scenario of violent winds and storms,
17:01and partly because of the unfolding events witnessed within its walls.
17:09It's said that Bambrough Castle is haunted by a lady in pink.
17:13Now, this is believed to have been a local princess
17:16who fell in love with a boy, but her father did not approve,
17:20and he sent that boy away for seven years.
17:24And then, in an attempt to help his daughter move on
17:27and to not feel that love anymore,
17:29he told her that her lover had died.
17:32This was not true.
17:34Now, to cheer her up, he got the castle seamstress
17:37to make her a beautiful gown in her favourite colour, pink.
17:41And when she put on this dress,
17:44she then walked to the edge of the battlements
17:46and threw herself off them,
17:48and it's said that the castle is haunted now every seven years.
17:52When the ghost of that lady walks down to the seashore
17:55and she waits for her lost lover.
18:04Hundreds of people visit it every day,
18:07enjoying its carefully tended interior.
18:12Discovering the stories of knights bordering on the mythological.
18:18Listening to narrations of epic battles
18:21against invaders from over the sea.
18:24Tragic tales of love.
18:27And fantastic legends.
18:34If Sir Lancelot were real...
18:38..he couldn't wish for a better castle.
18:47Hidden among green meadows near the village of Chemney in Scotland
18:52is a castle with great personality.
18:58Castle Fraser, the Castle of Secrets.
19:10A woman's blood impregnated the castle.
19:15A woman's blood impregnated in the staircase.
19:23Notes of a piano being played at unearthly hours.
19:28The spirit of a woman dressed in black roaming the garden.
19:36Fraser still conceals today the answer to a number of mysteries
19:41that have terrified different generations for centuries.
19:55This castle's unsettling personality begins with its construction,
20:00which gives it a very original appearance in terms of shape.
20:05Originally, Castle Fraser was built as a simple stone tower
20:11but then in the late 1500s,
20:14Michael Fraser decided to expand it with a tower on opposite corners.
20:20And so it's that structure where you've got the central tower
20:24and then an extra tower on opposite corners.
20:27That's what's called the Z plan.
20:30After that, two long wings were attached,
20:33which gives Fraser its most distinctive U-shaped design we can see today.
20:41But if there is one thing that endures at Fraser forever and ever,
20:45that is its legends,
20:48which are just as much a part of it as its walls.
20:55The most well-known is that of a woman,
20:58apparently of noble lineage,
21:00murdered in this bedchamber called the Green Room.
21:11This mystery has always been shrouded in darkness
21:15because, so the story goes,
21:18someone entered her bedchamber, murdered her
21:21and then tried to hide the body.
21:26At any rate, her bloody body was then dragged down the stone stairs
21:30of the tower in an attempt to get rid of the body.
21:34But these bloodstains could not be removed
21:37and so they built wood panelling round the steps,
21:40which can still be seen today.
21:43The legend goes that the murderer was executed immediately,
21:47but the attempts to erase the blood were in vain.
21:55The identities of those responsible have never come to light.
22:02Sometimes the legends become entwined.
22:05Some believe that the ghost of a woman, dressed in black,
22:09could be that of a murdered woman.
22:11But this is not the case.
22:13The woman in black is actually the spectre of Lady Blanche Drummond,
22:18the beautiful wife of Earl Frederick, who died in 1874.
22:27She had consumption, which nowadays we'd call TB, tuberculosis,
22:32and so she was actually sent away down to Bournemouth
22:36and she died in Bournemouth at quite a young age.
22:46She is, however, believed to return to the castle in the form of a ghost,
22:51wearing a long black gown.
22:53And there is, in fact, still a portrait of her
22:55hanging in one of the rooms of the castle
22:58in her distinctive long black gown.
23:02Hmm.
23:08Earl Fraser remarried, and it is said that his second wife
23:12was always extremely jealous of the beauty of Lady Blanche,
23:16whose portrait hung in the Earl's favourite room.
23:22She installed curtains over it so that whenever she was sat in the room
23:27she wouldn't have to be confronted with the beauty of Blanche
23:30that she was so jealous of.
23:37On many evenings, the castle's silence is broken by notes
23:41being played on a piano.
23:49It is said that it is Lady Blanche playing them
23:53on some of the different pianos to be found in the castle.
23:57The melody can be heard in the surrounding area
24:00and along the main drive.
24:06The Fraser family took 60 years to refurbish this solid construction,
24:11but never imagined that it would be known for its mysteries and ghosts
24:16that climb up and down stairs,
24:19play the piano...
24:22..and call the servants.
24:28Does it have more secrets hidden behind its walls?
24:41Located on the island of Anglesey in Wales,
24:45surrounded by beautiful marshes from which it gets its name,
24:50Bomares Castle is impressive for many reasons.
24:57And some mysteries.
25:02The destiny of Bomares was to be the finest castle in the world.
25:08The best-designed castle in the United Kingdom
25:12to be an impregnable bastion.
25:16King Edward I was determined to create
25:19the finest military structure of its time.
25:23Bomares is almost the perfect castle.
25:26It's entirely symmetrical and it was built as a huge bastion
25:30for Edward I in his invasion and conquest of the Welsh.
25:37Bomares is a huge, almost perfectly symmetrical fortress.
25:43It has several concentric rings of imposing defences.
25:52The moat has its own dock.
25:55Supplies could be brought in by water from the nearby estuary.
26:01The external walls were prepared
26:04with 300 ingenious arrow slits for archers.
26:08And all the entrances have murder holes
26:11that could be used by its defenders to pour boiling water or oil.
26:17Bomares is very often seen as the ultimate castle.
26:22Perhaps the best castle in terms of military defence
26:28that was created in Europe in the Middle Ages.
26:31Certainly the most powerful castle in Britain,
26:34even though it was never finished.
26:36The man responsible for its construction
26:39was the royal architect James of St George,
26:43who also created Conwy and Caernarfon castles.
26:48At Bomares, he drew on all his military knowledge of the age,
26:53which in turn required a great investment of funds.
26:59Edward spent a lot of money on Bomares.
27:02And it was possibly the most expensive project that he had.
27:08It should have been the crowning glory of all of Britain.
27:12It should have been the crowning glory of all his Welsh castles.
27:15It should have been the crowning glory of the career of his architect.
27:20But in the end, he just didn't give the final bit of money
27:24that was needed to complete his work.
27:27Despite that, it's still the most impressive military architecture,
27:34I think, in the whole country from the Middle Ages.
27:37Thousands of labourers worked from dawn till dusk to build these walls.
27:43The health of many of them suffered with every stone they laid.
27:49So the construction of Bomares required thousands of labourers,
27:53and there is a legend that their chants and their work songs
27:57can still be heard reverberating around the castle walls to this day.
28:02This legend has various versions nowadays.
28:07It is said that these chants are actually the heart-rending laments
28:12of the exhausted labourers.
28:16Almost always, when you build a large castle,
28:19then you're going to displace people.
28:21And so, yes, they will have moved people,
28:25and there'll have been a lot of resentment
28:29because King Edward I had just conquered Gwynedd.
28:34And it was the last stronghold in Wales,
28:39it was the last part of Wales that held out against English rule.
28:46Today, Bomares is a haven of peace and tranquillity.
28:51At those times when the only sound is the leaves in the trees
28:55being swayed by the breeze,
28:57it is said that steps can be heard coming from the walls.
29:04Could it be the ghosts of those stonemasons trying to tell us something?
29:21If the Middle Ages have bequeathed something to us,
29:25it is stories and legends of war,
29:27played out by characters with a strong personality.
29:34The historical epic in this imposing castle
29:37goes by the name of a woman.
29:41Gwenllian Fair Griffith.
29:44Here, at Kidwelly Castle in South Wales,
29:49the beautiful Princess Gwenllian
29:52was decapitated during the fight to expel the Normans from this fortress,
29:57a struggle worthy of those medieval stories.
30:03Legend has it that her headless body roams tirelessly
30:07around passageways, towers and the surrounding area.
30:15Kidwelly is said to be haunted by a headless ghost.
30:18This is believed to be Gwenllian,
30:21and she was a warrior princess who was forced to raise her own army
30:26to defend her people against the invading Normans.
30:30Unfortunately, she lost the battle and had her head cut off,
30:34and ever since people have claimed to have seen her headless ghost
30:38looking on the battlefield for her missing head.
30:42Tenth-century scribes left a written testimony
30:45of the heroic deed of this young Welsh princess,
30:48who, in her husband's absence,
30:51tried to support the local revolts against the Norman invaders.
30:56Accompanied by two of her sons, she laid siege to Kidwelly,
31:01one of the most emblematic and carefully constructed fortresses of its time.
31:08Gwenllian Fir Griffith was a local Welsh princess.
31:12She was fiery, she was trained as a warrior,
31:15and she decided to attack Kidwelly Castle with another Welsh prince.
31:19But that other Welsh prince, he betrayed Gwenllian,
31:23and he told the Normans of her position.
31:26She was outside the castle, blocking off a road
31:29into which supplies to the castle would come.
31:32The Normans rode out, and they attacked her army,
31:35and in front of her eyes, they rode down and killed her son, named Morgan.
31:40And then she was seized from her own horse, taken back with the Normans,
31:44and the Norman lord, Maurice de Londra, beheaded her,
31:48and her headless ghost has been said to haunt the castle ever since.
31:54The castle had all the elements necessary to make it difficult to conquer.
32:01Fort calluses on the only two entrance gates.
32:07Carefully designed arrow slits that covered all the angles.
32:14Towering walls at the steepest part, and a semicircular wall at the weakest part,
32:20to make it easier to defend against any attack.
32:25The Normans locked any Welshman they were suspicious of in the dungeons,
32:29another feature of the castle.
32:33The prisoners never re-emerged from there,
32:36although the castle had its secret passageways.
32:41Sally ports were one of the most cutting-edge designs in castles.
32:46It was a secure exit from which people inside the castle could then leave
32:51and attack those that were laying siege to their castle.
32:55Gwentleanne was captured and executed,
32:58together with two of her sons, very near the castle.
33:04It is said that there, in the village of Carmarthen, the wizard Merlin was born.
33:10But that's another story.
33:18Seen from a distance, it is impossible to predict that this elegant castle,
33:24situated in Aberdeenshire,
33:28is the standard-bearer of Scotland's enchanted castles.
33:40Fyvie Castle is exactly that, an enchanted fortress.
33:52We are going to tell you the story of the most tragic and spine-chilling events
33:58that surround Fyvie.
34:02Apart from murders, secret chambers...
34:10...curses and legends, it is said that up to nine different ghosts
34:15have been either heard or spotted in spectral form in its elegant rooms.
34:25Lady Lilius Drummond was the beautiful lady of the castle.
34:29She had married the earl Alexander Drummond-Seaton in 1592,
34:35a happy marriage.
34:37But then the children arrived, or rather, the daughters.
34:42Lady Lilius gave birth to five girls.
34:45Like all the noblemen of the period, the earl craved a male heir to continue his line.
34:52He sought solace in the arms of a lover and focused his rage on Lady Lilius.
35:00Fyvie Castle is said to be haunted by Lady Lilius,
35:04who is known to have been kept prisoner and punished by her husband
35:08for failing to provide him with an heir.
35:11A rescue attempt was launched, but it failed,
35:13and she was punished again by having members of her family murdered
35:17and their body parts thrown past the window.
35:20Eventually she starved to death in that very room.
35:26Legend has it that Lady Lilius died of starvation,
35:30but it is also said that she was murdered
35:33and that the blood spilt in the room where she was locked away has never been erased.
35:41He remarried not that long after.
35:44He married Griselle Leslie, who was the cousin of Lilius.
35:50It seems that in the bedchamber,
35:52where the earl and his new wife were celebrating their wedding night,
35:56sighs and strange noises could be heard.
35:59It was a night of panic and terror.
36:04The following morning, when they looked out of the window,
36:08they saw the name of Lady Lilius Drummond etched into the stone windowsill.
36:14It is still there today.
36:21It is said that the ghost of the Countess appears often,
36:25wearing a green dress,
36:27and that it keeps the other fivy ghosts in check.
36:35One of them is Annie, the girl on the stairs.
36:42Some say that actually she's been captured on film.
36:45Others say they've seen a ghostly adult walking away with her up the stairs.
36:50In fact, it's even claimed that she's been made contact with,
36:54and when asked if she minded visitors to the castle,
36:57she said no, because she had someone to play with.
37:01Nobody knows who she is.
37:04It is not known whether it is the soul of one of Lady Lilius's daughters,
37:09or some other unexplained death.
37:14I don't think anyone really knows who she is or who she was,
37:18but she seems to be a friendly ghost.
37:22She's a little girl that likes to play on the stairs
37:25and likes to have people about,
37:27because there are friends that she can play with.
37:32Another of the fivy legends revolves around a trumpet player called Andrew Lammy.
37:41He fell in love with a local miller's daughter called Agnes Smith,
37:45but the local laird had also fallen in love with her,
37:48and he made sure that Lammy was sent away in slavery to the West Indies.
37:52She died. According to the story,
37:55she was actually beaten up by her brother, and that was what killed her.
38:00And her grave is still in the churchyard.
38:04Lammy eventually escaped and came back to discover that Agnes had died,
38:09and upon his death, he then said that the castle would be cursed
38:14with the sound of trumpets that would always foretell the death of the castle's laird.
38:21Some claim to have heard heart-rending trumpet melodies
38:26while strolling around the gardens at Fivy.
38:29The same gardens where one of the three weeping stones,
38:34another of this castle's famous legends, is supposed to be buried.
38:44This relates to the period when it was built and comes from the Middle Ages.
38:49Fivy Castle was built with stones taken from church lands,
38:53and Thomas the Rhymer said if those stones were not replaced,
38:57then there would be a curse on the castle.
38:59It would never pass down the mail line for more than two generations.
39:03Two of those three stones have been discovered,
39:06and it's said that they weep that they produce water
39:09whenever a tragedy is about to befall the owners.
39:13Hence the name Weeping Stones.
39:17And it is true that for generations,
39:20the heirs of Fivy have never lived in the castle.
39:27Perhaps they would find it unpleasant to live in a residence
39:31which still has a woman's skeleton within its walls,
39:35a skeleton that was uncovered 100 years ago during renovation work.
39:42This was in the 1920s, and they buried it in the churchyard.
39:47But after they buried it, then strange knocks and noises were heard,
39:51and you couldn't get peace in the castle at all.
39:54And so they had it disinterred again
39:58and put back into the same place where it had come from,
40:02and everything returned to normal,
40:05and everything was peaceful again in the castle.
40:08The possible identity of this woman has never come to light,
40:12nor even the exact spot where she is to be found.
40:20It is said that there is a dungeon in the basement
40:23that might be the skeleton's resting place,
40:26and that anyone opening the door will be cursed.
40:30Two earls of Fivy died after doing so,
40:34and their wives went practically blind.
40:39This is the outline of Fivy Castle,
40:43Scotland's most enchanted fortress.
40:47Don't say we didn't warn you.
40:58Standing before us is the largest castle in Wales,
41:02the second largest in the United Kingdom,
41:06and one of the largest in Europe, Caerphilly Castle.
41:13It has one of the largest known water defence systems,
41:17a peculiar leaning tower,
41:21and a ghost dressed in green that transforms into ivy.
41:30Red Gilbert was given this nickname because of his red hair.
41:35A man with a fiery temper and violent character,
41:39he had Caerphilly built in 1268,
41:42in a display of power that can be seen from the large area of land it occupies,
41:47and from its enormous moat,
41:50which was a real feat of engineering for the period.
41:53Caerphilly has an enormous system of water around it.
41:57It's a whole sequence of moats and lakes and meers
42:02to create this enormous aquatic landscape,
42:05which is partly there to defend the castle,
42:08but also to demonstrate just how powerful its builder was
42:12by being able to tame the landscape in such a way.
42:15The design of Caerphilly Castle is remarkable.
42:18It's one of the earliest concentric castle designs in the country.
42:22That means that there's an outer ring of defence
42:25which mimics the inner ring,
42:27creating an area where an attacker would be exposed to fire.
42:34From the air, we can see Caerphilly's defensive rings perfectly.
42:40The moat, although not particularly deep,
42:43prevented enemy troops from advancing in the conventional way.
42:47We can also see from various perspectives
42:51the inclination of one of its towers,
42:55the so-called Leaning Tower.
42:59The tower has a leaning angle of more than 10 degrees,
43:03which is even more than the famous tower in Italy.
43:06It was said that it may have resulted from an explosion
43:10or an artillery attack.
43:14One of the towers at Caerphilly is leaning over at quite a crazy angle.
43:19It's sometimes rumoured that this was a result
43:23of fighting during the Civil War,
43:25but it's almost certainly a result of subsidence
43:28after the moat was drained and the land has actually moved,
43:32creating that leaning tower.
43:41The castle is impressive when seen close up.
43:45From its entrance towers with their imposing portcullis...
43:50..to its huge, powerful walls.
43:57Everything in this fortress in South Wales
44:00is a demonstration of its robust construction.
44:05The peace and tranquillity that pervades Caerphilly
44:08contrasts with a certain coldness in its interior.
44:12Perhaps this sensation is transmitted by a tragedy
44:15that remains alive in the memory,
44:18a love drama that ended in the worst possible way.
44:25Its protagonist is a lady dressed in green.
44:30Alice de Angoulême,
44:32the French wife of Red Gilbert.
44:37Caerphilly is also famous for its Green Lady.
44:40According to the legend,
44:42this was Red Gilbert's wife, Princess Alice.
44:46She apparently had an affair.
44:48He, when he found out, had her sent back to France
44:52and the unfortunate man she was having an affair with
44:55was captured and executed.
45:00Then triumphantly he tells Alice in France
45:03that his lover has been murdered.
45:05Alice falls dead on the spot
45:07and it's said that her ghost haunts the walls of Caerphilly
45:11and that she wears a green dress,
45:14in the envy of her husband.
45:21It is also said that the ghost of the lady in green
45:25is given this name because it can transform itself
45:28and appear in the form of the vegetation
45:31that is permanently present in Caerphilly.
45:35MUSIC PLAYS
45:41Nowadays, wandering around Caerphilly Castle
45:44produces a flood of sensations,
45:47although some send a shiver down your spine.
46:00In the estuary of the River Conwy,
46:03on the north coast of Wales,
46:05this impressive fortress bearing the same name
46:09rises above the water.
46:12It was intended to control the coastal areas
46:15and prevent incursions into the territory along the river.
46:22Conwy forms part of the group of castles
46:25built on the orders of King Edward I
46:28after conquering Wales at the end of the 13th century,
46:32including Carmaris and Caernarfon.
46:36Of all of them, Conwy was the most expensive.
46:40It is said that the king invested almost £20,000 at the time
46:45in creating this defensive wall, fearing a Welsh revolt.
46:49As part of Edward I's invasion and conquest of Wales,
46:53he built the Iron Ring around north Wales,
46:56a system of castles which included the Castle of Conwy.
47:01So he built these three castles,
47:03and Conwy is one of the most impressive.
47:06And it's a concentric castle like the others,
47:09and it's the work of his great mason, James de St George.
47:16The royal architect looked to take advantage of the rock
47:20on which the castle stands
47:22to prevent tunnels being built by possible attackers.
47:26It has two wards, an inner one and an outer one,
47:30which overlooks the coast.
47:35Its eight towers have walls more than four metres thick.
47:43The castle is also built on two levels,
47:46thanks to the land and the design of its walls.
47:50Conwy Castle has an outer curtain wall,
47:54and then inside that you have another castle.
47:58And so when people take the outer wall,
48:03then they've still got a castle to take inside that.
48:07And the relative heights are such that you can shoot down
48:14from the inner castle onto people in the outer castle.
48:21Unlike other castles in Wales,
48:24Conwy's construction was adapted to the land
48:27and thus did not have a concentric floor plan,
48:31and also lacks an imposing entrance.
48:38Access to it was over a bridge crossing the estuary,
48:42which gave it an extra element of security.
48:46So Conwy has a very, very elaborate defensive system
48:50which involves gate after gate after gate
48:53with portcullises and arrow slits and fields of fire
48:57to ensure that it was an incredibly difficult castle to take.
49:03The siege to which King Edward was subjected in Conwy
49:07by the Welsh years later
49:10meant that it was adapted to his presence for a number of years.
49:16Notably, the religious part.
49:20It's said that the castle was once built near a monastery,
49:23and in spite of all of this enormous military architecture,
49:28that sense of the place being religious has never left
49:31and it's known to be haunted by monks.
49:35And it is said that today the monks can still be seen,
49:39and remarkably, they seem to be levitating monks.
49:42People have seen them rising up into the air.
49:52This is not the only legend that is alive and well in Conwy.
49:57Its location in a seaport is part of a story told with great conviction
50:02because of its consequences.
50:04One of the stories that survives around Conwy
50:07concerns a mermaid that was discovered by fishermen
50:10and she was paraded through the town,
50:12but that led to her death because she needed to go back in the water
50:16and she cursed the town.
50:18And then recently, on the very spot where the mermaid was said to have died,
50:22the town hall was destroyed by fire.
50:25Then that was replaced by a library and that also burned to the ground.
50:33Perhaps because of the fear that took hold of Conwy's inhabitants,
50:38the castle gradually fell into disrepair over the years.
50:43One of its last owners even decided to sell off the castle's iron and lead
50:49and the fortification became the ruin that we see today.
50:57A gloomy, desolate ruin,
51:00perfect for telling stories of cursed mermaids and ghostly monks.
51:21Up now, Aussie celebs trade the limelight for the spotlight
51:24in a new season of Celebrity Mastermind.
51:27And later, Sam Neill stars in the heartwarming film
51:30about a reclusive man and a rebellious kid
51:33in Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
51:57Subs by www.zeoranger.co.uk