England 2017:23 Chepstow

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Chepstow The castle from the parking lot - Marten's tower	Chepstow When I first saw this in 1981, I thought, what a dull looking castle. It's not.	Chepstow The gatehouse and entrance	Chepstow The gatehouse
Chepstow The entrance has double machiolations.	Chepstow The lower bailey, and the beginning of the realization that this is not a dull castle.	Chepstow Damaged building behind the gatehouse.	Chepstow First set of rooms
Chepstow Up-to-date broom closet	Chepstow Section of wall	Chepstow Inside of the gatehouse and curtain wall	Chepstow Marten's tower from the bailey. Marten was imprisoned here by Charles II for signing the death warrant for Charles I.
Chepstow Half of a two-seater garderobe, the bars are to keep modern tourists from falling in.	Chepstow The two-seater garderobe	Chepstow A view across the castle, with the keep in the background	Chepstow A storage vault for wine
Chepstow The original doors to the castle gatehouse, dated to 1190 or earlier, oldest castle doors in Europe.	Chepstow Marten's tower again	Chepstow Hall, 13th century	Chepstow Plan of the castle
Chepstow West end of the lower bailey	Chepstow Part of the gatehouse	Chepstow Entrance to the middle bailey	Chepstow Inside a tower
Chepstow Inside a tower	Chepstow Marten's tower again	Chepstow All that's left of Tudor era lodgings.	Chepstow Across the middle bailey is the great keep - definitely not a dull castle.
Chepstow The great keep is half gone, but still very impressive.	Chepstow The middle bailey from the front of the keep.	Chepstow Remains of a doorway	Chepstow The keep from the curtain wall walk
Chepstow View of the middle bailey from a tower on curtain wall	Chepstow Loopholes in the tower	Chepstow Close-up of a loophole	Chepstow Part of the walls
Chepstow Outer wall of the great keep	Chepstow Entrance to the keep	Chepstow Lower floor of the keep. The dark holes along the walls are where the supports for the upper floor fit in.	Chepstow South wall of the keep. The lower level was probably storage or for servants. The family lived up where the arches are.
Chepstow The north wall of the keep, facing inside the castle, so it's safe to have windows.	Chepstow Description of the keep	Chepstow Base of an arch	Chepstow Back end of the keep, with vaulted end of the great hall.
Chepstow Remaining plaster decoration in great hall.	Chepstow Sign about the decoration	Chepstow More of the north wall	Chepstow Looking down the hall to the door
Chepstow Wall along the upper bailey	Chepstow Gate leading to the barbican	Chepstow Remains of the William Marshal's tower	Chepstow Sign about the tower
Chepstow A corner window and a loophole	Chepstow The outer walls	Chepstow Upstairs in Marshal's tower	Chepstow Curtain wall walk to South-east tower and the upper gatehouse.
Chepstow Looking down into the tower	Chepstow Spiral staircase	Chepstow Alcoves for loopholes and holes for beams to support the upper floor.	Chepstow More inside the tower
Chepstow Stairs up to the gatehouse, with patch for the broken bottom steps	Chepstow Upper gatehouse	Chepstow Marshal's tower from the upper gatehouse	Chepstow Part of the gatehouse
Chepstow Part of the gatehouse	Chepstow Part of the gatehouse	Chepstow Wall walk from gatehouse to south-east tower	Chepstow Inside the tower
Chepstow Inside the tower	Chepstow The tower from inside the barbican	Chepstow The upper gatehouse from inside the barbican	Chepstow Machiolations in upper gatehouse
Chepstow Window	Chepstow Drawbridge from upper bailey to barbican	Chepstow The barbican area	Chepstow Back end of the keep
Chepstow Middle bailey side of the Tudor ruins	Chepstow Inside Marten's tower	Chepstow Inside Marten's tower	Chepstow Inside Marten's tower
Chepstow Inside Marten's tower	Chepstow Inside Marten's tower	Chepstow Inside Marten's tower	Chepstow The lower bailey from Marten's tower
Chepstow Nice window in Marten's tower	Chepstow Windows and passageway	Chepstow Another window	Chepstow Nice view of lower and middle baileys
Chepstow Top of the tower	Chepstow Steel repair to the stone spiral stairs	Chepstow Castle history	Chepstow Carew castle, found by accident on my way to dinner.
Chepstow I didn't feel like swimming across for a closer look.