Wales has more castles per square inch than the rest of the UK! Raglan Castle was the pre-eminent castle of the Tudor period and, looking at the thickness of the walls, you would think it was primarily a defensive castle. But no! For much of its history, this castle was a pleasure palace, the grandest castle ever built by a Welshman. Its ruination came after one of the longest sieges of the Civil War in 1646 when it fell to parliamentary forces and was deliberately destroyed. After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, the owners (the Somersets) declined to restore it and it became first a source of local building materials, then a romantic ruin, and is now a tourist attraction.
