Sights in Wales
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Cardiff Castle
The grafting of Victorian mock-Gothic extravagance onto Cardiff's most important historical relics makes Cardiff Castle the city's leading attraction. It's far from a traditional Welsh castle, more a collection of disparate castles scattered around a central green, encompassing practically the whole history of Cardiff. The most conventional castle-y bits are the 12th-century motte-and-bailey Norman keep at its centre and the 13th-century Black Tower, which forms the entrance gate.
In the 19th century it was discovered that the Normans had built their fortifications on top of the original 1st-century Roman fort. The high walls that surround the castle now are largely a…
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National Museum Cardiff
Set around the green lawns and colourful flowerbeds of Alexandra Gardens is the Civic Centre, an early-20th-century complex of neo-Baroque buildings in gleaming white Portland stone. They include the City Hall, police headquarters, law courts, crown offices, Cardiff University and this excellent museum, one of Britain's best, covering natural history, archaeology and art.
The Evolution of Wales exhibit takes you through 4600 million years of geological history, with a rollicking multimedia display that places Wales into a global context. Films of volcanic eruptions and aerial footage of the Welsh landscape explain how its scenery was formed, while model dinosaurs and…
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Millennium Stadium
The spectacular Millennium Stadium squats like a stranded spaceship on the River Taff's east bank. Attendance at international rugby and football matches has increased dramatically since this 72,500-seat, three-tiered stadium with sliding roof was completed in time to host the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The famous Cardiff Arms Park , its predecessor, lies literally in its shadow.
Not everyone is happy with it: one critic called it 'an absurdly overexcited structure…that rears over the surrounding streets like a sumo wrestler'. The stadium cost £110 million to build and big matches paralyse the city centre, but when the crowd begins to sing, the whole city resonates and all is…
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Chepstow Castle
Magnificent Chepstow Castle perches atop a limestone cliff overhanging the river, guarding the main river crossing from England into South Wales. It is one of the oldest castles in Britain (building began in 1067) and the impressive Great Tower retains its original Norman architecture.
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Wales Millennium Centre
The centrepiece and symbol of Cardiff Bay's regeneration, the Millennium Centre is an architectural masterpiece of stacked Welsh slate in shades of purple, green and grey topped with an overarching bronzed steel shell. Designed by Welsh architect Jonathan Adams, it opened in 2004 as Wales' premier arts complex, housing the Welsh National Opera, National Dance Company, National Orchestra, Academi (Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency), HiJinx Theatre and Ty Cerdd (Music Centre of Wales).
The roof above the main entrance is pierced by 2m-high, letter-shaped windows, spectacularly backlit at night, that spell out phrases from poet Gwyneth Lewis: 'Creu Gwir fel Gwydr o…
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Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
The real masterpiece of civil engineer Thomas Telford (1757-1834) is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, completed in 1805 to carry the Llangollen Canal over the Dee River. At 316m long and 38m high, it is perhaps the most spectacular piece of engineering on the entire UK canal system and the highest canal aqueduct ever built. The first stone of the aqueduct, which connected the rivers Severn, Mersey and Dee at the height of the Industrial Revolution, was laid in 1795.
More recently it was nominated by the government as a World Heritage site. If accepted by Unesco, the aqueduct will join Stonehenge and the Tower of London on the list of World Heritage sites in Britain.
The aqueduct…
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Norwegian Church
On the east side of the harbour, looking like it's popped out of the pages of a storybook, is the Norwegian Church, a white-slatted wooden building with a black witch's-hat spire. Built in 1869 beside the long-gone Bute West Dock, it was a seamen's mission, modelled on the lines of a traditional Norwegian village church. It fell into disrepair, but remained a place of worship until 1974; the Cardiff-born writer Roald Dahl was christened here, and served as president of the preservation trust that restored and renovated the church. It has now been reincarnated as an arts centre with an excellent café, interesting exhibitions, concerts and arts courses.
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Plas Mawr
Plas Mawr, one of Britain's finest surviving Elizabethan town houses, was built in 1585. The tall, whitewashed exterior is an indication of the owner's status, but gives no clue of the vivid friezes of the interior. The admission price includes a helpful audio tour; a combined ticket including entrance to the castle costs £6.85/5.85 per adult/child.
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Techniquest
The biggest and best science and technology discovery centre in Britain, Techniquest has more than 160 engrossing, fun, hands-on exhibits with absorbing explanations. You can explore whirlwinds, race bubbles, play a harp with no strings and more - equally enjoyable for under-fives, stoned students and inquisitive adults. The shop has lots of quirky stuff and is reasonably priced. There's also a planetarium which stages night-sky demonstrations and science shows.
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Ocean Lab
The Ocean Lab , on the waterfront near Goodwick, houses an exhibition on marine life and the environment. Aimed mainly at kids, it has various hands-on exhibits, as well as Oscar the mammoth skeleton, a soft play area and a café.
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Laston House
William Paxton built his saltwater baths above the harbour in what is now Laston House. The Greek writing on the pediment translates as the optimistic, 'The sea will wash away all the evils of man'.
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Maritime Museum
Next to the tourist office, the tiny Maritime Museum has a low-key pocket history of the highs and lows of topsail schooners and other sailing ships in a wharf-side slate shed.
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Llandudno Museum
Llandudno Museum presents local history through an assortment of artefacts and explores themes such as the development of the town as a holiday resort.
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Home Front Experience
Home Front Experience is a small museum that looks at life at home during WWII, and offers visitors the chance to try out an air-raid shelter.
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Doctor Who Up Close
The huge success of the reinvented classic TV series Doctor Who, produced by BBC Wales, has brought Cardiff to the attention of sci-fi fans worldwide. City locations have featured in many episodes and the spin-off series Torchwood is set in Cardiff Bay (the hidden lift to their headquarters emerges beneath the water sculpture in Roald Dahl Plass). Capitalising on Timelord tourism, this permanent exhibition has opened in the Red Dragon Centre, with props and costumes from both shows displayed alongside video clips from the episodes they feature in. It's great fun – especially when you come face to face with full-size Daleks in full 'ex-ter-min-ate' mode. Fans can pick up a…
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Conwy Castle & Town Wall
Probably the most stunning of all Edward I's Welsh fortresses, built between 1277 and 1307, Conwy Castle rises from a rocky outcrop with commanding views across the estuary and Snowdonia National Park. Exploring the castle's nooks and crannies makes for a superb, living-history visit but, best of all, head to the battlements for panoramic views and an overview of Conwy's majestic complexity.
The 1200m-long Conwy town wall was built simultaneously with the castle, guarding Conwy's residents at night. You can walk part-way round the wall; the best views are to be had from Upper Gate.
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St David's Cathedral
Hidden in a hollow and behind high walls, St David's Cathedral is intentionally unassuming. The valley site was chosen in the vain hope that the church would be overlooked by Viking raiders, but it was ransacked at least seven times. Yet once you pass through the gatehouse that separates it from the town and its stone walls come into view, it's as imposing as any of its contemporaries.
Built on the site of a 6th-century chapel, the building dates mainly from the 12th to the 14th centuries. Extensive works were carried out in the 19th century by Sir George Gilbert Scott (architect of the Albert Memorial and St Pancras in London) to stabilise the building. The distinctive …
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Caernarfon Castle
Majestic Caernarfon Castle was built between 1283 and 1330 as a military stronghold, a seat of government and a royal palace. Inspired by the dream of Macsen Wledig recounted in the Mabinogion, Caernarfon echoes the 5th-century walls of Constantinople, with colour-banded masonry and polygonal towers, instead of the traditional round towers and turrets.
Despite its fairytale aspect it is thoroughly fortified. It repelled Owain Glyndŵr's army in 1404 with a garrison of only 28 men, and resisted three sieges during the Civil War before surrendering to Cromwell's army in 1646.
A year after the construction of the building was begun, Edward I's second son was born here,…
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Tenby & Caldey Island
Charming Tenby is the epicentre of Pembrokeshire coast holiday culture. The image of its sheltered harbour and lifeboat slipway, overlooked by pastel Georgian townhouses, is a Pembrokeshire badge. Tenby's top trip is the 20-minute boat ride to Caldey Island, the home of a community of Cistercian monks, as well as grey seals and Wales' largest cormorant colony.
Located on a rocky promontory surrounded at low tide by golden sands, Tenby's old town features attractive architecture, steep streets and curious nooks, plus a 500m section of town wall. The place is popular with well-heeled weekend tourists and sore-heeled coast path walkers.
The castle on the promontory above the…
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Cathedral Church of St Deiniol
Also called the Cathedral Church of St Deiniol, the cathedral - surprisingly squat, partly due to lack of cash for a central spire - occupies one of the oldest ecclesiastical sites in Britain. Dedicated to St Deiniol, who founded a cell here in AD 525 and who was consecrated as bishop in AD 546, the cathedral's earliest traces are of a 12th-century stone building, while some of what you see today is based on reconstruction work in the late 13th century.
Responsibility for damage can be blamed on King John, whose men also burned the city, seized the bishop and ransomed him for 200 falcons. Further ravages took place at the turn of the 15th century, during the Glyndŵr…
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Cardiff Bay Waterfront
Lined with important national institutions, Cardiff Bay is where the modern Welsh nation is put on display in an architect's playground of interesting buildings, large open spaces and public art. It wasn't always this way. By 1913 more than 13 million tonnes of coal was being shipped from Cardiff's docks. Following the post-WWI slump the docklands deteriorated into a wasteland of empty basins, cut off from the city by the railway embankment. The bay outside the docks – which has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world (more than 12m between high and low water) – was ringed for up to 14 hours a day by smelly, sewage-contaminated mudflats.
Since 1987 the area has…
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Senedd (National Assembly Building)
Designed by Lord Richard Rogers (the architect behind London's Lloyd's Building and Paris' Pompidou Centre), the Senedd is a striking structure of concrete, slate, glass and steel with an undulating canopy roof lined with red cedar. It's won awards for an environmentally friendly design, which includes a huge rotating cowl on the roof for power-free ventilation and a gutter system that collects rainwater for flushing the toilets. The lobby and surrounding area are littered with public artworks.
The Welsh National Assembly usually meets in a plenary session from 1.30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and seats in the public gallery may be pre-booked, although you can always take…
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Maritime Quarter
WWII bombing flattened much of central Swansea, which was rebuilt as a rather soulless retail development in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. What little remains of Georgian and Victorian Swansea stretches from Wind St and York St to Somerset Pl and Cambrian Way in the Maritime Quarter ; this is the most attractive part of the city centre.
The area around the former docks to the southeast of the city centre was originally redeveloped as a residential area in the 1980s - low-rise red- and yellow-brick apartment blocks with blue-painted steel balconies, which are beginning to look a little tired now. The South Dock and the Tawe Basin (enclosed by a smaller version of Cardiff Bay's…
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St Mary's Priory Church & Tithe Barn
Relatively modest-looking, St Mary's contains a remarkable treasury of aristocratic tombs within. It was founded at the same time as the castle (1087) as part of a Benedictine priory, but the present building dates mainly from the 14th century, with 15th- and 19th-century additions and alterations. In the northern transept is one of the most important medieval carvings in Europe – a monumental 15th-century wooden representation of the biblical figure of Jesse.
The priory's 13th century tithe barn has recently been restored and converted into an excellent heritage centre and a food hall focusing on locally sourced Welsh products.
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Skomer, Skokholm & Grassholm Islands
Lying off Wales' best beaches in St Brides Bay, the islands are a marine nature reserve populated by immense sea-bird colonies, grey seals and dolphins. Skomer is home to over 500,000 breeding sea birds and about 150 grey seal pups are born here annually. Skokholm is the habitat for 35,000 Manx shearwaters and puffins and Grassholm has 33,000 gannet pairs.
Skomer is the largest and easiest island to reach. Its breeding bird colonies include puffins, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars, cormorants, shags, and the burrow-breeding Manx shearwater. Together Skomer and Skokholm have the largest colony in the world: 160,000 strong.
To visit Skomer, the Dale Princess cruiser offers…
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