Time Out’s account of the reopened fortress says Cadw brought in stonemasons, archaeologists and conservation experts
Caerphilly Castle After 8 Million Pounds: A Restored Great Hall, New Interactive Exhibits and a Student Who Wants a Day Out
Time Out’s account of the reopened fortress says Cadw brought in stonemasons, archaeologists and conservation experts
By Bethan Morgan, history student and crafter
Wednesday, Train, Window Seat
Dear diary, Time Out reported in January 2026 on Caerphilly Castle, which the article calls the biggest fortress in Wales and the second-largest castle in Britain after Windsor, covering about 30 acres. I have not yet visited since the restoration, and I read the article on the train to Cardiff with a sandwich and a sense of duty.
The date of the article is given in its web address as 2 January 2026. I take that as the publication date.
The Restoration
The castle was closed for two years for an 8 million pound renovation, the article says. Cadw, Wales’s heritage body, brought in stonemasons, archaeologists and conservation experts to restore the 13th-century fortress. It reopened to the public in July 2025, so it has been open for some months already.
The Great Hall was restored to its former appearance with digital enhancements that evoke royal feasts of the 1320s, and new interactive exhibits cover the castle’s history, including power struggles, betrayals and medieval intrigue.
The Marquess
The article mentions the Fourth Marquis of Bute, who gave the castle a major makeover in the 1920s. I add nothing to that, except that the history of the castle is itself layered: medieval walls, a twentieth-century rescue and now a twenty-first-century digital hall.
A historian loves a layer. A castle is just a pile of them.
Digital Feasts
I have mixed feelings about digital enhancements. A feast on a screen is not a feast. But a great hall without any enhancement is an empty room with a high ceiling, and a visitor needs some help to imagine the noise and the meat. I will keep an open mind, and I will see it before I judge it.
The article gives no opening hours or ticket prices. I will check Cadw’s site.
Why Castles
Wales is full of castles, as any train window will tell you. What I will say is that a castle is a good place to go when one has an essay due, because it reminds you that things were built by people with deadlines.
I like that thought. The deadlines were worse.
A Craft Angle
I make things, so I look at stonework with a different eye. The stonemasons the article mentions are craftspeople of a high order. The article does not describe their work in detail, so I cannot say what they did. I can say only that the repair of a medieval wall is an art, and one of the oldest.
If I ever meet one, I will ask what they carry in their bag.
Plans
I will go in spring, with a friend and a flask. We will walk the walls, look at the lake and spend more than we should in the shop. I will pretend to be a medieval baroness for twenty minutes and then I will go home.
The article does not say whether dogs are allowed. I will check.
Night
The train is slowing. The sandwich is gone. The castle is somewhere on the horizon.
Goodnight, diary. Mind the portcullis.
Questions From the Train
Friend one: is it open now? The article says it reopened in July 2025. Friend two: how much does it cost? The article does not say. Friend three: is the Great Hall real or digital? The article says it was restored to its former appearance with digital enhancements, which sounds like both.
I told them I would go and see, and report on the digital feasts with the severity of a medieval critic.
Caerphilly and the Rest
The article also notes that this is a 13th-century fortress, and that the restoration used archaeologists as well as stonemasons. That combination of the digger and the builder is the right one. The first tells you what was there and the second makes sure it stays. Together they save a building from becoming a rumour, and a rumour is the most common state in which a medieval castle survives in the public mind. I will go and see the real one, and I will take a notebook, a flask, a friend who is good with directions and, because I cannot help myself, a ball of wool.
Homework
Homework, makers: compare the three comic takes on the same overseas property story. Manila News, the London Prat (see https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney each start from a recognisable market fact and wink at you through the exaggeration. Then find more at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try NewsBiscuit, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/