Caerphilly Castle unveils dragons' lair as part of £9.5m works

The dragons snore and produce smoke

A dragons' lair has been unveiled at Wales' biggest castle as part of a £9.5m investment programme.

After eight months of work, the creatures were unveiled at Caerphilly Castle earlier.

Culture and tourism minister, Lord Elis-Thomas, said he hoped they would "go a long way towards improving the tourism offer of the valleys".

Plans for the £570,000 investment at the castle, to mark its 750th anniversary, were submitted in May.

• Wales 'needs more foreign tourists'

• Chinese tourists flock to Yorkshire chippy

• The places with too many visitors

Cadw, the Welsh Government's monuments service, is spending £9.5m on improving its sites over the next three years.

Part of this was making Caerphilly Castle a permanent home to Cadw's family of dragons, which it said helped attract 500,000 visitors in the summer of 2017.

More than 900,000 people went to Cadw sites throughout the whole of 2017 - a 20% rise on 2016.