IV.

Places of Interest

Thirteenth-century Caerphilly Castle is the largest castle in Wales and the second largest in the United Kingdom after Windsor Castle. The castle boasts an elaborate defence system, including a vast moat held back by a medieval dam. Llancaiach Fawr Manor is a 16th-century country house near Nelson. The site includes a living history exhibition recreating life in a Welsh manor house during the Civil War, in which guides act out the daily lives of a family and their servants. There is a forest drive at Cwmcarn, and the country parks of Sirhowy, Bryn Bach, and Cwm Darran are of interest. Parc Penallta, built on the site of a reclaimed colliery, opened in 2000 and features the United Kingdom’s largest figurative earth sculpture, in the shape of a pit pony.