Many visitors to South East Wales will, quite naturally, be drawn to the many attractions offered by Cardiff, the region’s principal city. Why not let your guide take you to the less visited parts of this region, and sculpt a tour to both entertain and educate. It’s a region hosting three of Wales’ National Museums, immense medieval castles, national parks and an industrial heritage that made Wales the world’s first industrialised country. Learn more about the area, and prepare to be amazed.
Castles
Chepstow, Caerphilly from medieval times, but also Castell Coch (modelled on Germanic lines) and Cyfarthfa Castle, home of the Crawshays, founders of the world’s largest iron works for many decades. The three castles of Gwent (Grosmont, White and Skenfrith), Abergavenny, Tretower (with its restored medieaval mansion house) are even more places to visit.
Industrial Heritage
Big Pit mining museum, which allows you to go down the shaft into an authentic coal mine, Blaenafon Ironworks (part of the Blaenafon UNESCO World heritage site), Rhondda Heritage Centre – just three of the centres which tell the story of how iron, and then coal and steel, transformed the once green valleys into bustling and boisterous mining areas. Take a tour through these and see how nature is now repainting those valleys green once more now that the coal industry has (almost!!) stopped.
Rural and Roman life
Three of Wales’ National Museums are in close range – the award winning St Fagans National museum of History on the outskirts of Cardiff covers over 80 acres and over 40 buildings relocated from all over Wales and rebuilt here; Caerleon has the National Roman Legion museum, centred on the town where one of the three Roman legions billeted to control Britain was based, and of course the National coal museum in Big Pit has already been mentioned. To add to this small market towns like Hay, Abergavenny and Brecon, areas of natural beauty like the Wye Valley and Black Mountains – both home to haunting ruins of former abbeys formed to allow monks to contemplate and pray far from the sounds of cities and people.
Nature and Geology
The Bannau Brycheiniog national park (formerly known as the Brecon Beacons) is a living area with a proud and ongoing agricultural heritage, but also home to renowned walks such as the Fans or the Waterfall country. Learn from your guide about the geology and evolution of this remote area, only a few miles north of the bustling former industrial areas. The Vale of Glamorgan with its Jurassic Coast and sea cliffs is also a place where a slower pace of life can be encountered.
All this you can explore with your guide. Contact them directly and put together an itinerary moulded to what you want to see.