Cardiff Castle

Few places compress so much history into one walled enclosure in the middle of a modern city. Cardiff Castle began as a Roman fort, became a Norman stronghold and ended as one of the most extravagant Victorian fantasies in Britain, and all three layers are still visible within the same walls on the edge of the city's shopping streets. The Romans fortified the site in the 1st century AD, and a later stone fort of the 3rd century, built against sea raiders, set the outline that the castle still follows; sections of its masonry survive at the base of the rebuilt walls.

After the Normans pushed into South Wales in the late 11th century they raised a tall earth motte inside the old Roman walls, and in the following century crowned it with the many-sided stone shell keep that still stands on its mound, ringed by a moat. Through the Middle Ages the castle passed between powerful Marcher lords, the de Clares, the Despensers and the Earl of Warwick, and was attacked more than once, including by Owain Glyndŵr's forces in 1404. A prisoner of note was Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror, who was held here from 1126 until his death.

The castle's most dazzling chapter came with coal. In the 19th century the Marquesses of Bute grew immensely rich from the docks and mines of Glamorgan, and in 1865 the young 3rd Marquess met the architect William Burges, a man as passionate about the Middle Ages as he was. Together they turned the old lodgings into a Gothic Revival dream, starting in 1868 with the Clock Tower, a suite of bachelor rooms. Inside, the castle's rooms are a riot of gilding, carved animals, stained glass and painted legends: the Arab Room with its honeycomb ceiling of gold and the two-storey Banqueting Hall with murals of knights and monks. Burges worked on the castle until his death in 1881. In 1947 the 5th Marquess gave the castle and its parkland to the people of Cardiff.

Cardiff, the capital of Wales, grew from a small market town into one of the world's great coal ports in the 19th century, largely on Bute money; Bute Park, once part of the family's estate, now runs along the River Taff into the heart of the city.

Getting there

The castle stands in central Cardiff, a few minutes' walk from the main shopping streets. Cardiff Central railway station, with direct trains from London and across Wales, is less than 1 km to the south. Cardiff Airport (CWL) is about 15 km to the south-west.