The start of another week, so another theme. I am very ignorant about history and I don’t enjoy going round stately homes, but I am fascinated by RUINS. They somehow fit so beautifully and naturally into the countryside in a way which lived-in buildings usually don’t. Perhaps it’s something to do with the environment taking over again after the intrusion. I also love the craggy shapes and secret corners.

I shall be relying on the internet to give me some information about the various ruins!

Rhuddlan Castle, in North Waes, was begun in 1277 by King Edward 1 who was determined to subdue the Welsh. His castles had to be accessible from the sea so that the supply line couldn’t be cut off. Rhuddlan was several miles inland, so he planned to use the river Clwyd – but it wasn’t quite in the right place! So Edward conscripted hundreds of ditch-diggers to deepen and divert its course. It was the first of the revolutionary concentric, or ‘walls within walls’, design of castles.