Van Mansion

The aerial blip photo is of Van Mansion, Caerphilly (South Wales) which is about a mile from Caerphilly Castle of which it has views, and of the nearby Caerphilly Mountain.

It dates from about 1415, with much of the house being built after 1529 from stone robbed from Caerphilly Castle which was in ruin by this time. It is one of the most important Tudor Mansions in Glamorgan (South Wales) and is grade 2 listed. It was orginally surrounded by a deer park and has a substantial dovecote (behind the barn you can see in the picture) where birds wirds bred and kept for food.

It was in ruin by 1905 and sold for £70K in 1996 when it was restored. It recently changed hands for about £800K!

As it's old I thought I'd process in it black and white, ideal for Mono Monday! It's taken with a fisheye lens and I haven't corrected the distortion.