Cardiff Castle: Travel Guide (4.6★)

Cardiff’s shopping streets run straight into a stone wall. At the top of St Mary Street, the traffic turns along Castle Street and a long curtain of masonry takes over, broken by a gatehouse and a clock tower. Cardiff Castle is not tucked away somewhere. It is the city’s centre of gravity, and you reach it by walking out of a shop door.

Three castles on one patch of ground

The site has been fortified for close to two thousand years. The Romans built a fort here, and when you walk the outer walls you can see a band of different stone low in the masonry. That band marks the surviving Roman work. Everything above it is later rebuilding.

Inside the walls, the ground opens into a wide lawn. In the middle stands a steep grassy mound topped by the Norman shell keep, a round stone ring built after the Norman conquest of this part of Wales.

Along the western side sits the third castle: the house. It was remodelled in the Victorian era into the Gothic fantasy that most visitors come to see. The 5th Marquess of Bute gave the whole property to the city of Cardiff in 1947. Its Welsh name is Castell Caerdydd.

The rooms William Burges painted

The house interiors are the reason people who have seen plenty of castles still come here. From the 1860s, the architect William Burges worked for the 3rd Marquess of Bute, one of the richest men in Britain. The Marquess made his money from the coal trade that ran through Cardiff’s docks. Burges used that money on colour.

Expect:

• The Clock Tower, with its Summer and Winter Smoking Rooms decorated in gilding, painted tiles and carved figures
• The Arab Room, with a gilded, honeycombed ceiling
• The Banqueting Hall, lined with murals of the castle’s medieval story
• The Library, carved and shelved in dark wood
• The Nursery, painted with fairy-tale and nursery-rhyme scenes

Almost no surface is left plain. Walls, ceilings, fireplaces and door frames all carry pattern, symbols or small sculpted animals. Give yourself time to look up. The ceilings are where Burges went furthest. Some of the most elaborate rooms can only be seen on a guided house tour, so check what your ticket includes before you arrive.

Up the Norman keep

The keep is reached by steps up the side of the mound, followed by narrow stairs inside the stone ring. It is a real climb and not step-free, so anyone with limited mobility should know that before setting out.

From the top you look over the whole walled enclosure. Beyond it you can see the city’s rooftops, the edge of Bute Park and the Principality Stadium roof to the south. It is the easiest way to understand how the Roman square, the Norman mound and the Victorian house fit together.

The tunnels inside the walls

The thick outer walls are hollow in places. During the Second World War, these galleries were fitted out as air-raid shelters, and thousands of Cardiff residents could crowd in during bombing raids.

Today you can walk through them. They are long, dim and low, with displays and recreated wartime details that bring the shelters back to life. The tunnels stay cool even in summer and make a good break from the open lawn on a hot day.

When to go, and when not to

The castle opens at 10am from Monday to Friday. On Saturday and Sunday it opens an hour earlier, at 9am. Every day it closes at 5pm.

The quietest window on weekdays is 10am–11am, right after the gates open. At weekends it is 9am–10am. Take that early slot seriously on a Saturday or Sunday. From 11am to 5pm at weekends the grounds are at their busiest, and the house rooms are too narrow to take a crowd comfortably.

Allow two to three hours if you want the house, the keep and the tunnels. Add more if you join a guided tour. Arriving after mid-afternoon leaves you rushing towards the 5pm close.

Getting through the gatehouse early

The castle is well known and very busy, so beating the crowd matters more than any insider trick. Here is how to do it.

• Book online through the official Cardiff Castle website where you can. Current ticket prices and tour options are listed there, and booking saves you from queuing at the gate.
• Check the Principality Stadium fixtures. On rugby international or big concert days, the city centre fills with crowds, and the streets around the castle are packed.
• Watch for events on the lawn. The castle green sometimes hosts concerts and festivals, which can change access to parts of the grounds.
• Pay by card or phone. Contactless payment is normal across Cardiff, as it is in the rest of the UK.

On a weekend, the best plan is simple. Be at the gatehouse at 9am, head into the house first while it is still quiet, then do the keep and tunnels as the crowds build.

The Animal Wall and beyond Castle Street

Leave by the main gate and turn west along Castle Street. The wall there is topped with carved stone animals, including lions, a bear, an anteater and others. This is the Animal Wall, another Burges design, and it is free to see from the pavement.

Behind the castle, Bute Park stretches north along the River Taff. It was once the Butes’ private grounds, and now it offers riverside paths and arboretum lawns.

A ten-minute walk north-east brings you to Cathays Park. The white Portland stone civic buildings there include City Hall and National Museum Cardiff.

South of the castle, St Mary Street leads to the Victorian arcades and the covered Cardiff Market. Both are good for a late lunch after a morning inside the walls.

Cardiff Central station is roughly a ten-to-fifteen-minute walk south. Queen Street station is a similar distance east, which makes the castle easy to reach for a day trip from Bristol, Swansea or London.