Fortresses Of History: The Secrets Of Britain’s Greatest Castles

Fortress. Prisons. Towers. The castles have witnessed our history for centuries. In Europe, over a hundred thousand are still standing. Thousand years later. Let's visit the most spectacular and most mysterious castles. We will discover the secrets that are hidden behind their walls. And we will relive their long-lasting legends. Observing Bodium Castle from the sky at dawn is one of the most beautiful images we can contemplate. Is this a real image? Or an illusion? At Bodium, nothing is exactly what it seems. Rising out of the water, surrounded by reflections that are both mysterious and evocative. Bodium Castle was built in the 14th century using a marvelous trick. A trick that has been used for centuries in architecture, painting and photography. And which goes by the name of forced perspective. Forced perspective is a very clever architectural trick, which is used to make a castle appear bigger than it actually is. It was something that was done by the owner, Sir Edward Dalingrigg, to prove that he was bigger, more important perhaps, than he actually was. And why would anyone want to use a visual trick with such a beautifully designed castle? So he was using trickery to fool advancing enemies into thinking it was a much bigger castle. And we also see that it's surrounded by a huge moat. And again, this was reflecting back the size of the castle in the waters, creating a much bigger impression than was actually physically there. Built in 1385, it occupies a strategic position in the county of Sussex. Back then, the River Rover was navigable up to this point. And the kingdom lived in fear of a French invasion. When you see it for the first time, the castle makes an impression. Its imposing grey stone battlements, surrounded by a wide moat, in which the reflections increase the sensation of power, convince you that you are looking at a redoubtable fortress. This visual trick with the water is enhanced by the height of the battlements and the fact that they are close together. This makes the castle seem bigger and more robust than it actually is. If you look at the battlements on the top, they're actually smaller than they would need to be in real life, as are the windows on the upper stories. And this creates the illusion of them being farther away and thus of the building being higher than it actually is. Everything is a question of appearances, and that is Bodium's great secret. It has very little defensive capability. When you see its battlements up close, they are indeed small. And its interior is more akin to a private residence at the time than to a fortress. The castle itself is actually really small. It's a very, very minute, almost like a manor house, but the walls cast over the water just give it this false perspective. And enable the viewer to think that it's much more big and much more impressive than it actually is. However, Bodium has some great innovations to make the most of its size. Its owner, Sir Edward Dallingrigg, drew on his experience in the war with France to import a number of details. Inside, we find an extraordinary curiosity. The water wells. There were wells in the center of each tower. One theory has it that this was to enable access to an abundant supply of water for boiling and pouring over enemies from the walls. Or from the murder holes in the main halls if they managed to get in. But also for survival. The main entrance to the castle was not the one we see today. The walkway started from one side, which meant you had to turn through 90 degrees to enter. This prevented enemies from attacking the main door with burning carts launched in a straight line. The design of the main towers made it possible to defend against invaders attacking along the walkway. These towers and the bridge also feature prominently in two practically secret legends. One story from Bodium is that there is a ghost of a red lady seen up in a tower. She stares at the horizon, her eyes fixed on something. But no one knows exactly what she's looking at. Another important ghost story from Bodium concerns a child that was seen by the castle custodian in 1994. This child was seen wearing Victorian clothes, something straight out of a Dickens novel. And he was walking across that bridge over the moat. He never reached the other side though and disappeared halfway across. Perhaps he fell in and drowned. Nobody has ever found out who the red lady is or the child on the bridge. Some also claim that at night sometimes you can hear strange voices and chanting in indecipherable tongues. More than for its legends or its beautiful exterior, Bodium has gone down in history, according to the experts, as the castle of false appearances. Although there is nothing false about its beauty. Nestling in kilometres of green countryside, with its unique pointed towers, Glamis Castle looks like a fairy tale castle. However, above and beyond the 1,001 luxuriously decorated rooms and the fact that it has been the residence of members of the royal family, this fortress conceals nooks and crannies where demonic legends and sinister stories lie in wait. Glamis Castle has an extraordinary history. It's one of the most haunted castles in the British Isles. The origins of Glamis Castle date back to the 14th century, after Robert the Bruce, one of the most venerated leaders of Scottish independence, ceded the land to the Bowes-Lyon family. In the 14th century, the Lyon family owned Glamis Castle, but that became the Bowes-Lyon family in the mid-18th century, and the Bowes-Lyons were very important. That's because Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was actually the mother of Queen Elizabeth II of England. As the centuries went by, the humble original tower was extended until it became the fortress we see today, which still belongs to the same family. One of Glamis' most harrowing legends dates back 200 years, with the birth of the first son in the family line. What should have been happy news became a dark, tragic story. Thomas Lyon Bowes was born as the master of Glamis, which is the title of the eldest son, in 1821. And on his records, it says that he was born and died on the same day. And there has been a suspicion that actually he didn't. The dark recesses of Glamis Castle still conceal this secret in their depths, the story of what became known as the Monster of Glamis, a child who, it seems, may have been born with a deformity. And that there was a hideous birth, and that they tried to disguise this but kept him alive. Why was he imprisoned? Some say it was because he was born deformed. Somebody even described him as being half man, half frog. And this terrible creature was kept locked up in the castle so as not to come into its true inheritance. Glamis became immersed in darkness and the most deathly silence. It is not easy to hide something like this in a castle of this size, which despite having many lounges, staircases and rooms, also has a lot of serving staff. And so the legend grew and became an open secret. It's possible that this human prisoner, this Monster of Glamis, was once discovered by a maid, but to prevent her from telling anyone, she had her tongue cut out. And she's said to be seen walking the grounds, holding on to her mutilated mouth, dripping with blood. Glamis has an imposing presence. Its carefully tended gardens have an elegant appearance, but every turn may conceal a chilling tale. Glamis Castle has a reputation of one of the most haunted castles in Scotland, perhaps even in the world. And there's so many legends connected with it, it's difficult to choose any particular one. One of these macabre legends is that of Earl Beardy, a cruel aristocrat known for his love of gambling. Beardy is said to have been a violent and a dangerous man. He was also an alcoholic and a gambler. One night he was gambling at cards with a friend of his, Earl Crawford, and the night was getting late. His steward warned him and he said, Sir, it is nearly midnight and tomorrow is the Sabbath. Beardy knew that he shouldn't gamble on a Sunday, but he said, I will gamble until doomsday. I will even gamble with the devil himself. The legend has it that the devil did indeed appear to play cards with him. When the clock struck midnight, there was a knock at the door and a tall stranger appeared. The steward left them to it and there were soon noises, shouting, violence and struggle. He came down in the morning, the stranger was still there, watching and Earl Beardy and Earl Crawford had been engulfed in a ball of flame. It's said that that stranger really was the devil and that Beardy and Crawford had gambled away their souls. The castle has been haunted to this very day with the sounds of Beardy and Crawford struggling with the devil. Some people claim that centuries later, the devil and Earl Beardy are still playing in a secret room in Glamis Castle and that the impassioned screams of a card game, whose stakes were life and death, can still be heard. Another of the tormented souls that many claim to have seen wandering around the gardens at Glamis is Janet Douglas, the Grey Lady. She was accused of poisoning her husband, John Lyon, in 1528. And there was no evidence for this at all but he was determined to get his way and so he had her family tortured and in the end her son confessed and so she was burnt at the stake alive and her teenage son was made to watch her burn. How many generations of earls and countesses have heard the truculent stories of Glamis? How many secrets have been told in hundreds of aristocratic dinners? The walls of Glamis are full of secrets and they will continue to be for a few centuries more. In our imaginations, we probably all make a very direct link between medieval castles, knights, invaders and legends. Banburra Castle is the perfect example. Banburra, built in the northeast of England in the 5th century, overlooking the North Sea, has witnessed viking invasions and wars for power. The history of Banburra goes right back and in 547, Eda, who was king of the Bernisians, conquered Banburra and he probably conquered it from the islands off the shore, Lindisfarne and and he made a stockade there. Then 50 years later or so, his descendant, King Æthelfrith, gave it to his wife Bebba and it's from her name that we get Banburra. Bebbanburg gives us Banburra. The location of this enormous fortress was considered a historically strategic spot for the defense of the island by its different civilizations. The Normans then built a castle on this site and it's their tower that forms the basis of the modern castle that we see today. This presence and importance was perhaps the reason why Banburra also took center stage in the greatest legend in medieval history, the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It's also believed that Banburra castle might be the castle that belonged to Lancelot, one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. It's said that Lancelot went there and he defeated 20 other knights in a very famous night called the Copper Night and he named that castle Joyous Guard. This idea comes from the novel Le Morte d'Arthur, written in 1469 in prison by a knight who had fallen from grace called Thomas Mallory. Since then, Banburra has maintained its reputation as an icon of legends and mysteries, partly because of its imposing image in a scenario of violent winds and storms and partly because of the unfolding events witnessed within its walls. It's said that Banburra castle is haunted by a lady in pink. Now this is believed to have been a local princess who fell in love with a boy, but her father did not approve and he sent that boy away for seven years. And then in an attempt to help his daughter move on and to not feel that love anymore, he told her that her lover had died. This was not true. Now to cheer her up, he got the castle seamstress to make her a beautiful gown in her favourite colour, pink. And when she put on this dress, she then walked to the edge of the battlements and threw herself off them. And it's said that the castle is haunted now every seven years when the ghost of that lady walks down to the seashore and she waits for her lost lover. Hundreds of people visit it every day, enjoying its carefully tended interior, discovering the stories of knights bordering on the mythological, listening to narrations of epic battles against invaders from over the sea, tragic tales of love and fantastic legends. If Sir Lancelot were real, he couldn't wish for a better castle. Hidden among green meadows near the village of Chemney in Scotland is a castle with great personality. Castle Fraser, the castle of secrets. A woman's blood impregnated in the staircase. Notes of a piano being played at unearthly hours. The spirit of a woman dressed in black roaming the garden. Fraser still conceals today the answer to a number of mysteries that have terrified different generations for centuries. This castle's unsettling personality begins with its construction, which gives it a very original appearance in terms of shape. Originally, Castle Fraser was built as a simple stone tower. But then in the late 1500s, Michael Fraser decided to expand it with a tower on opposite corners. And so it's that structure where you've got the central tower and then an extra tower on opposite corners. That's what's called the Z plan. After that, two long wings were attached, which gives Fraser its most distinctive U-shaped design we can see today. The work involved the Fraser family in 60 years of refurbishment, with the original tower as the starting point. Many master builders were involved in the updating of the castle. It is believed that one of the most prestigious master masons of the 17th century left his mark on the north side, John Bell of Middermar. There is a stone which is carved with John Bell's initial and then the name Bell. Of course, in the old days, there was no real difference between the letter I and the letter J. So you'd write the name John with an initial I, instead of where we would use a J today. But if there is one thing that endures at Fraser forever and ever, that is its legends, which are just as much a part of it as its walls. The most well-known is that of a woman, apparently of noble lineage, murdered in this bedchamber called the Green Room. This mystery has always been shrouded in darkness because, so the story goes, someone entered her bedchamber, murdered her, and then tried to hide the body. At any rate, her bloody body was then dragged down the stone stairs of the tower in an attempt to get rid of the body. But these bloodstains could not be removed, and so they built wood panelling around the steps, which can still be seen today. The legend goes that the murderer was executed immediately, but the attempts to erase the blood were in vain. The identities of those responsible have never come to light. Sometimes the legends become entwined. Some believe that the ghost of a woman dressed in black could be that of a murdered woman, but this is not the case. The woman in black is actually the spectre of Lady Blanche Drummond, the beautiful wife of Earl Frederick, who died in 1874. She had consumption, which nowadays we'd call TB, tuberculosis, and so she was actually sent away down to Bournemouth, and she died in Bournemouth at quite a young age. She is, however, believed to return to the castle in the form of a ghost wearing a long black gown, and there is in fact still a portrait of her hanging in one of the rooms of the castle in her distinctive long black gown. Earl Fraser remarried, and it is said that his second wife was always extremely jealous of the beauty of Lady Blanche, whose portrait hung in the Earl's favourite room. She installed curtains over it so that whenever she was sat in the room, she wouldn't have to be confronted with the beauty of Blanche that she was so jealous of. On many evenings, the castle silence is broken by notes being played on a piano. It is said that it is Lady Blanche playing them on some of the different pianos to be found in the castle. The melody can be heard in the surrounding area and along the main drive. And although there were never children at Fraser, the kitchen servants sometimes heard children whispering and laughing, and also calls from empty rooms. The Fraser family took 60 years to refurbish this solid construction, but never imagined that it would be known for its mysteries and ghosts that climb up and down stairs, play the piano, and call the servants. Does it have more secrets hidden behind its walls? Located on the island of Anglesey in Wales, surrounded by beautiful marshes from which it gets its name, Bomares Castle is impressive for many reasons and some mysteries. The destiny of Bomares was to be the finest castle in the world, the best designed castle in the United Kingdom, to be an impregnable bastion. King Edward I was determined to create the finest military structure of its time. Bomares is almost the perfect castle, it's entirely symmetrical, and it was built as a huge bastion for Edward I in his invasion and conquest of the Welsh. Bomares is a huge, almost perfectly symmetrical fortress. It has several concentric rings of imposing defences. The moat has its own dock, supplies could be brought in by water from the nearby estuary. The external walls were prepared with 300 ingenious arrow slits for archers, and all the entrances have murder holes that could be used by its defenders to pour boiling water or oil. Bomares is very often seen as the ultimate castle, perhaps the best castle in terms of military defence that was created in Europe in the Middle Ages, certainly the most powerful castle in Britain, even though it was never finished. The man responsible for its construction was the royal architect James of St George, who also created Conwy and Caernarfon castles. At Bomares, he drew on all his military knowledge of the age, which in turn required a great investment of funds. Edward spent a lot of money on Bomares, and it was possibly the most expensive project that he had. It should have been the crowning glory of all his Welsh castles, it should have been the crowning glory of the career of his architect, but in the end, he just didn't give the final bit of money that was needed to complete his work. Despite that, it's still the most impressive military architecture, I think, in the whole country from the Middle Ages. Thousands of labourers worked from dawn till dusk to build these walls. The health of many of them suffered with every stone they laid. So the construction of Bomares required thousands of labourers, and there is a legend that their chants and their work songs can still be heard reverberating around the castle walls to this day. This legend has various versions nowadays. It is said that these chants are actually the heart-rending laments of the exhausted labourers. Almost always when you build a large castle, then you're going to displace people, and so yes, they will have moved people, and there'll have been a lot of resentment, because King Edward I had just conquered Gwynedd, and it was the last stronghold in Wales, it was the last part of Wales that held out against English rule. Today, Bomares is a haven of peace and tranquillity. At those times when the only sound is the leaves in the trees being swayed by the breeze, it is said that steps can be heard coming from the walls. Could it be the ghosts of those stonemasons trying to tell us something? If the middle ages have bequeathed something to us, it is stories and legends of war played out by characters with a strong personality. The historical epic in this imposing castle goes by the name of a woman. Here, at Kidwelly Castle in South Wales, the beautiful princess Gwen Rhian was decapitated during the fight to expel the Normans from this fortress, a struggle worthy of those medieval stories. And the legend has it that her headless body roams tirelessly around passageways, towers, and the surrounding area. Kidwelly is said to be haunted by a headless ghost. This is believed to be Gwen Rhian, and she was a warrior princess who was forced to raise her own army to defend her people against the invading Normans. Unfortunately, she lost the battle and had her head cut off, and ever since people have claimed to have seen her headless ghost looking on a battlefield for her missing head. 10th century scribes left a written testimony of the heroic deed of this young Welsh princess, who, in her husband's absence, tried to support the local revolts against the Norman invaders. Accompanied by two of her sons, she laid siege to Kidwelly, one of the most emblematic and carefully constructed fortresses of its time. Gwenlian Fir Griffith was a local Welsh princess. She was fiery, she was trained as a warrior, and she decided to attack Kidwelly castle with another Welsh prince. But that other Welsh prince, he betrayed Gwenlian, and he told the Normans of her position. She was outside the castle, blocking off a road into which supplies to the castle would come. The Normans rode out, and they attacked her army, and in front of her eyes, they rode down and killed her son named Morgan. And then she was seized from her own horse, taken back with the Normans, and the Norman lord, Maurice de Londres, beheaded her, and her headless ghost has been said to haunt the castle ever since. The castle had all the elements necessary to make it difficult to conquer. Port calluses on the only two entrance gates. Carefully designed arrow slits that covered all the angles. Towering walls at the steepest part, and a semi-circular wall at the weakest part, to make it easier to defend against any attack. The Normans locked any Welshman that they were suspicious of in the dungeons, another feature of the castle. The prisoners never re-emerged from there, although the castle had its secret passageways. Sally ports were one of the most cutting-edge designs in castles. It was a secure exit from which people inside the castle could then leave and attack those that were laying siege to their castle. Gwendolyan was captured and executed, together with two of her sons, very near the castle. It is said that there, in the village of Carmarthen, the wizard Merlin was born. But that's another story. Seen from a distance, it is impossible to predict that this elegant castle, situated in Aberdeenshire, is the standard bearer of Scotland's enchanted castles. Fyvie Castle is exactly that, an enchanted fortress. We are going to tell you the story of the most tragic and spine-chilling events that surround Fyvie. Apart from murders, secret chambers, curses and legends, it is said that up to nine different ghosts have been either heard or spotted in spectral form in its elegant rooms. Lady Lilius Drummond was the beautiful lady of the castle. She had married the Earl Alexander Drummond-Seaton in 1592, a happy marriage. But then the children arrived, or rather, the daughters. Lady Lilius gave birth to five girls. Like all the noblemen of the period, the Earl craved a male heir to continue his line. He sought solace in the arms of a lover and focused his rage on Lady Lilius. Fyvie Castle is said to be haunted by Lady Lilius, who is known to have been kept prisoner and punished by her husband for failing to provide him with an heir. A rescue attempt was launched, but it failed, and she was punished again by having members of her family murdered and their body parts thrown past the window. Legend has it that Lady Lilius died of starvation, but it is also said that she was murdered and that the blood spilt in the room where she was locked away has never been erased. He remarried not that long after he married Griselle Leslie, who was the cousin of Lilius. It seems that in the bedchamber where the Earl and his new wife were celebrating their wedding night, sighs and strange noises could be heard. It was a night of panic and terror. The following morning, when they looked out of the window, they saw the name of Lady Lilius Drummond etched into the stone windowsill. It is still there today. It is said that the ghost of the Countess appears often wearing a green dress and that it keeps the other Fyvie ghosts in check. One of them is Annie, the girl on the stairs. Some say that actually she's been captured on film. Others say they've seen a ghostly adult walking away with her up the stairs. In fact, it's even claimed that she's been made contact with, and when asked if she minded visitors to the castle, she said no because she had someone to play with. Nobody knows who she is. It is not known whether it is the soul of one of Lady Lilius's daughters or some other unexplained death. I don't think anyone really knows who she is or who she was, but she seems to be a friendly ghost. She's a little girl that likes to play on the stairs and likes to have people about because they're friends that she can play with. Another of the Fyvie legends revolves around a trumpet player called Andrew Lammy. He fell in love with the local miller's daughter called Agnes Smith, but the local laird had also fallen in love with her, and he made sure that Lammy was sent away in slavery to the West Indies. She died. According to the story, she was actually beaten up by her brother, and that was what killed her, and her grave is still in the churchyard. Lammy eventually escaped and came back to discover that Agnes had died, and upon his death, he then said that the castle would be cursed with the sound of trumpets that would always foretell the death of the castle's laird. Some claim to have heard heart-rending trumpet melodies while strolling around the gardens at Fyvie. The same gardens where one of the three weeping stones, another of this castle's famous legends, is supposed to be buried. This relates to the period when it was built and comes from the Middle Ages. Fyvie castle was built with stones taken from church lands, and Thomas the Rhymer said if those stones were not replaced, then there would be a curse on the castle. It would never pass down the mail line for more than two generations. Two of those three stones have been discovered, and it's said that they weep that they produce water whenever a tragedy is about to befall the owners. Hence the name Weeping Stones, and it is true that for generations, the heirs of Fyvie have never lived in the castle. Perhaps they would find it unpleasant to live in a residence which still has a woman's skeleton within its walls, a skeleton that was uncovered 100 years ago during renovation work. This was in the 1920s, and they buried it in the churchyard, but after they buried it, then strange knocks and noises were heard, and you couldn't get peace in the castle at all, and so they had it disinterred again and put back into the same place where it had come from, and everything returned to normal, and everything was peaceful again in the castle. The possible identity of this woman has never come to light, nor even the exact spot where she is to be found. It is said that there is a dungeon in the basement that might be the skeleton's resting place, and that anyone opening the door will be cursed. Two earls of Fyvie died after doing so, and their wives went practically blind. This is the outline of Fyvie Castle, Scotland's most enchanted fortress. Don't say we didn't warn you. The view of Lincoln Castle in the north of England, with its famous prison inside, sends a shiver down your spine. The fortress buildings, but particularly the brick walls of the prison, evoke moments of horror involving men, women, and children imprisoned for crimes of all kinds, most of them condemned to die on the gallows. Lincoln Castle was built in the 11th century by William the Conqueror, a descendant of Vikings. This place has always been a settlement for warriors, Celts, Romans, Saxons, Danes, but its structure was converted into a prison in 1787. Lincoln Castle is fascinating for its layers of history, a Norman stronghold, and also a prison. In a corner of the courtyard, a scattering of in memory of the 38 prisoners executed on the gallows, the majority of them at the hands of an executioner who became sadly famous, William Marwood. Not everyone knows the secret of this cobbler turned hangman. Marwood invented the long drop hanging technique. He carried out years of research in an attempt to make the convicts' death more humane. Using a longer rope than usual, the prisoner's neck was broken rather than them dying of slow strangulation. Somewhat macabre, it is true, but more compassionate than the previous method. Lincoln was a maximum security prison. It is said that sometimes, instead of hammocks, the prisoners slept in coffins just in case they died during the night. Its chapel looks like a torture pulpit. The seats were individual, and their malevolent design did not allow anyone to look sideways. That way, they were unable to communicate with anyone. And there's even a chapel at Lincoln where they have screens either side of them, so that the only person that they can see is the vicar who is actually officiating at these services. So they're kept entirely separate. A very, very brutal psychological torture, which was eventually discredited. The legend of Lincoln has it that strange presences can be felt in the chapel, and a sudden chill is experienced. In 2013, workers at the castle discovered a stone sarcophagus buried within what was almost certainly an Anglo-Saxon church. And within this sarcophagus, there was a skeleton that still had fragments of leather boots or shoes on its feet. And this must have been a very, very high status person of the Anglo-Saxon period, possibly a king or maybe a bishop. What is not in doubt is that this prison makes your hair stand on end. Standing before us is the largest castle in Wales, the second largest in the United Kingdom, and one of the largest in Europe. Caerphilly Castle. It has one of the largest known water defence systems, a peculiar leaning tower, and a ghost dressed in green that transforms into ivy. Red Gilbert was given this nickname because of his red hair. A man with a fiery temper and violent character, he had Caerphilly built in 1268, in a display of power that can be seen from the large area of land it occupies, and from its enormous moat, which was a real feat of engineering for the period. Caerphilly has an enormous system of water around it. It's a whole sequence of moats and lakes and meers to create this enormous aquatic landscape, which is partly there to defend the castle, but also to demonstrate just how powerful its builder was by being able to tame the landscape in such a way. The design of Caerphilly Castle is remarkable. It's one of the earliest concentric castle designs in the country. That means that there's an outer ring of defence which mimics the inner ring, creating an area where an attacker would be exposed to fire. From the air, we can see Caerphilly's defensive rings perfectly. The moat, although not particularly deep, prevented enemy troops from advancing in the conventional way. We can also see from various perspectives the inclination of one of its towers, the so-called leaning tower. One of the more noticeable things about Caerphilly Castle is its leaning southeast tower, sometimes called the Welsh Tower of Pisa. But actually, with a leaning angle of over 10 degrees, it's leaning more than the Tower of Pisa. The tower has a leaning angle of more than 10 degrees, which is even more than the famous tower in Italy. It was said that it may have resulted from an explosion or an artillery attack. One of the towers at Caerphilly is leaning over at quite a crazy angle. It's sometimes rumoured that this was a result of slighting during the Civil War, but it's almost certainly a result of subsidence after the moat was drained and the land has actually moved, creating that lean in the tower. The castle is impressive when seen close up, from its entrance towers with their imposing portcullis to its huge powerful walls. Everything in this fortress in South Wales is a demonstration of its robust construction. The peace and tranquility that pervades Caerphilly contrasts with the tranquility with a certain coldness in its interior. Perhaps this sensation is transmitted by a tragedy that remains alive in the memory, a love drama that ended in the worst possible way. Its protagonist is a lady dressed in green, Alice de Angoulême, the French wife of Red Gilbert. Caerphilly is also famous for its green lady. According to the legend, this was Red Gilbert's wife, Princess Alice, and she apparently had an affair. He, when he found out, had her sent back to France and the unfortunate man she was having an affair with was captured and executed. Then triumphantly, he tells Alice in France that his lover has been murdered. Alice falls dead on the spot and it's said that her ghost haunts the walls of Caerphilly and that she wears a green dress, green for the envy of her husband. It is also said that the ghost of the lady in green is given this name because it can transform itself and appear in the form of the vegetation that is permanently present in Caerphilly. Nowadays, wandering around Caerphilly Castle produces a flood of sensations, although some send a shiver down your spine. In the estuary of the River Conwy on the north coast of Wales, this impressive fortress bearing the same name rises above the water. It was intended to control the coastal areas and prevent incursions into the territory along the river. Conwy forms part of the group of castles built on the orders of King Edward I after conquering Wales at the end of the 13th century, like Bowmaris and Caernarfon. Of all of them, Conwy was the most expensive. It is said that the king invested almost £20,000 at the time in creating this defensive wall, fearing a Welsh revolt. As part of Edward I's invasion and conquest of Wales, he built the Iron Ring around north Wales, a system of castles which included the Castle of Conwy. So he built these three castles and Conwy is one of the most impressive and it's a concentric castle like the others and it's the work of his great mason James de St George. The royal architect looked to take advantage of the rock on which the castle stands to prevent tunnels being built by possible attackers. It has two wards, an inner one and an outer one, which overlooks the coast. Its eight towers have walls more than four metres thick. The castle is also built on two levels, thanks to the land and the design of its walls. Conwy Castle has an outer curtain wall and then inside that you have another castle and so when people take the outer wall then they've still got a castle to take inside that and the relative heights are such that you can shoot down from the inner castle onto people in the outer castle. Unlike other castles in Wales, Conwy's construction was adapted to the land and thus did not have a concentric floor plan and also lacks an imposing entrance. Access to it was over a bridge crossing the estuary which gave it an extra element of security. So Conwy has a very very elaborate defensive system which involves gate after gate after gate with portcullises and arrow slits and fields of fire to ensure that it was an incredibly difficult castle to take. The siege to which King Edward was subjected in Conwy by the Welsh years later meant that it was adapted to his presence for a number of years, notably the religious part. It's said that the castle was once built near a monastery and in spite of all of this enormous military architecture that sense of the place being religious has never left and it's known to be haunted by monks. And it is said that today the monks can still be seen and remarkably they seem to be levitating monks. People have seen them rising up into the air. This is not the only legend that is alive and well in Conwy. Its location in a seaport is part of a story told with great conviction because of its consequences. One of the stories that survives around Conwy concerns a mermaid that was discovered by fishermen and she was paraded through the town but that led to her death because she needed to go back in the water and she cursed the town. And then recently on the very spot where the mermaid was said to have died the town hall was destroyed by fire. Then that was replaced by a library and that also burned to the ground. Perhaps because of the fear that took hold of Conwy's inhabitants the castle gradually fell into disrepair over the years. One of its last owners even decided to sell off the castle's iron and lead and the fortification became the ruin that we see today. A gloomy desolate ruin perfect for telling stories of cursed mermaids and ghostly monks.