Cardiff ended up being one of my least favorite stops during our week of traveling through Wales. We really don’t love cities, and I don’t know why I feel impelled to visit country capitals when I already know this about us!

Nevertheless and as always, we made the best of our afternoon in the city, visiting the castle, walking around downtown, dancing between raindrops, and enjoying a great meal.

Exploring Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle was only a couple blocks from our hotel and the main site we focused on visiting.

At Cardiff Castle, there is almost 2,000 years of history just waiting to be explored. From the Roman occupation of Britain to the Norman Conquest, through civil war turbulence, a Victorian transformation and even the terrors of World War 2, these walls have seen it all.

Cardiff Castle brochure

We didn’t have much time to explore so we took the ticket worker’s recommendation to focus on the keep, the battlement walls, the Firing Line Museum, and the house. We had to cross the green to access the different areas and only barely made it to the keep’s gatehouse before it started to pour.

We took the opportunity to review the map, but we didn’t climb around the keep because we didn’t want to get soaked!

The Firing Line museum was interesting but a bit like the museums we visited in several other castles throughout Wales.

The exhibits I enjoyed the most focused on women in the military and the history of a goat serving as a ranking member of The Royal Welsh. Dating back to the 1770s when a wild goat was said to have accidentally joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on the field at the Battle of Bunker Hill, a goat has served with the regiment. But not without the occasional mishap:

Lance Corporal William ‘Billy’ Windsor, mascot of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, earned a demotion in 2006. When leading a parade in front of the Queen he marched out of line and tried to head-butt the battalion drummers. His demotion to the rank of fusilier meant that other soldiers were no longer expected to salute him as a sign of respect. Luckily, Billy eventually regained his old rank and retired with full honours to Whipsnade Zoo in 2009. Soldiers from the battalion lined the route from his pen to the trailer as he left their camp for the last time. 

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/army-mascots

We did a very quick tour of the inside of the house, and the rooms we were able to view were quite impressive.

The castle offers several guided tours of the house – some year round and others seasonally during the summer – and those options would likely have helped us better appreciate the house’s residents and its history to a greater degree than we were able to achieve trying to read the limited information displays.

We were running up against closing time so we missed a number of things like walking the battlement walls and exploring the wartime tunnels. The castle and grounds could easily have occupied a half-day itinerary.

Walking Around Downtown Cardiff

Although things were winding down at the end of the day we were able to walk several of the main streets, checking out some of the main arcades and markets.

I was particularly thrilled when we turned the corner and I discovered we were in the shopping area known as ‘The Hayes’ – even spelled correctly for my family!

Dinner at Jackson’s Seafood and Wine Bar

The highlight of our time in Cardiff was ducking into one of the arcades and randomly spotting a seafood restaurant that appeared to be hosting a fun happy hour.

We grabbed window seats and had a very attentive and friendly waitress who brought us some local oysters on the half-shell, fresh bread and smoked mackerel pate, champagne for me, and their house beer for Brian. He tried both kinds and the Black Oyster Shell was super interesting with an actual briny ‘shell’ note to it!

Although it wasn’t my favorite stop during our trip, we did make the most of our afternoon in Cardiff. If the weather had been cooperating I’m sure we would have found more to enjoy, like the the St. Fagan’s area, Bute Park, and Mermaid Quay along the bay.