A birds eye view of Chepstow Castle (photo from the internet!)
Sadie: Today we went to Chepstow Castle in Wales. Wales is different from England. This is a map of the castle. One side is in English, and the other side is in Welch. The castle was great, with lots of exciting tunnels, and different parts. It started being built 1067, making it 950 years old! It was used until 1685.
Rachel: This was really fun, and I loved it! There were very few people around, making it feel like we had the place almost all to ourselves. It was really fun to imagine what it had been like many hundreds of years ago. We did a lot of wondering about how long it took to build, what lives were like back then, what different areas were for, etc. There was a really nice woman who gave us an overview of the history, and answered questions we gathered from touring through the castle.
Sadie: These are the murder holes! They are at the entrance to the castle. If an enemy stood under them, and tried to break in, people from up above would drop hot sand, carcasses, rotten food, and stones and try to kill them. We loved the murder holes.
Rachel: The entrance to the castle was super interesting. There were many layers of defenses, with a portcullis, the murder holes, a metal-fronted heavy door, and another portcullis.
The stairs were super narrow and steep. The many many feet that had traveled them were evident by the wearing of the stone underfoot. We were thankful for a ‘modern’ handrail!
Sadie: We had a picnic lunch inside on the grass, right near the entrance. We did NOT throw our food scraps down the murder holes (though I wish we did)! We tried to get a picture jumping in the air, but it didn’t work.