Cardiff Castle

The Bute family, who transformed Cardiff from a small town into the world's biggest coal port, also transformed Cardiff Castle from a medieval ruin into the landscaped grounds and kitsch Gothic fantasy you see today.

The castle complex is hidden behind high walls which follow the outline of the original Roman camp and was a secret world cut off from the outside until the Butes donated it to the city in 1947. It's a collection of buildings arranged around a grassy, peacock-inhabited courtyard, the oldest of which are the 12th-century motte-and-bailey Norman keep and the 13th-century Black Tower beside the castle entrance.

The castle's site was first occupied by the Romans in the 1st century AD. Part of the Roman walls remain in the southeast corner, dating from the 3rd century AD and measuring 3m across at the base. It faces a scene-stealing sculpted frieze (created by Frank Abraham in 1983) that gives a muscular impression of life under Roman occupation.

A house was built here in the 1420s by the earl of Warwick and was extended in the 17th century by the Herbert family (the earls of Pembroke), but by the time the Butes acquired it a century later it had fallen into disrepair. The first marquess of Bute hired architect Henry Holland and Holland's father-in-law, the famous landscape-architect Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, to get the house and grounds into shape.

The most recent part is the array of 19th-century towers and turrets on the west side, dominated by the colourful 40m clock tower. This mock-Gothic extravaganza was dreamed up by the mindbendingly rich third marquess of Bute and his architect William Burges, a passionate eccentric who used to dress in medieval costume and was often seen with a parrot on his shoulder. Both were obsessed with Gothic architecture, religious symbolism and astrology, influences that were often combined in many of the features Burges designed, both here and at the Butes' second home at Castell Coch.

The 50-minute guided tour takes you through the highlights of this flamboyant fantasy world, from the winter smoking room, with décor reflecting the seasons of the year (and a fright for anyone who dares listen at the door - look up as you pass through the doorway!), through the elaborate Moorish decoration of the Arab room (marble, sandalwood, parrots and acres of gold leaf), to the mahogany-and-mirrors narcissism of Lord Bute's bedroom, with a gilded statue of St John the Evangelist (the marquess' name saint) and 189 bevelled mirrors on the ceiling, which reflect the name 'John' in Greek.

The banqueting hall boasts a fantastically over-the-top fireplace depicting the legend of Robert the Consul and is overlooked by that medieval must-have, a minstrels' gallery. The nursery - perhaps the most sympathetic room in the castle - is decorated with fairytale characters and the small dining room has an ingenious table, designed so that a living vine could be slotted through it, allowing diners to pluck fresh grapes as they ate. The roof garden seems to underline how much of a fantasy all this really was - designed with southern Italy in mind, rather than Wales.

The southeastern corner of the castle has recently reopened as an interpretation centre, tearoom and new home for the Regimental Museum of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards.