Sweep back in time to find out what the Romans
did for Wales, on a visit to the amphitheatre and baths at Caerleon,
or what they took from Wales at the Dolaucothi
gold mines. Explore Wales, the fortified kingdom of castles
– some whole, some ruined, or travel back to when coal was
king and mining and smelting left a thick fog of pollution and
hills of slag up and down the industrial valleys, when Cardiff’s
port was one of the world’s busiest.
Wales may be a tiny country, but it has hundreds
of castles, with one of the highest concentrations of medieval
fortifications in Europe. The biggest and best in the south Wales
is in Caerphilly
– the second largest castle in Britain, covering over 30
acres with a impressive moat. Slapped in the middle of the now-town
centre, take a look at the gravity-defying leaning tower, and
the machines of war including the giant catapult, or Trebuchet,
which still works. Perhaps your visit may coincide with historical
re-enactments. Britain's first stone castle is thought to be in
Chepstow,
built a year after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It marked the
end of rough-and-ready earth and timber strongholds – and
a major change in castle design.
Wales’ now-clean valleys may now seem
free from any coal mining legacy, but the small valley town Blaenavon
owes its Unesco World Heritage status to its past. As one of only
fifteen Unesco sites in the world, it joins Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge
and Canterbury Cathedral. Its old ironworks and coal mine are
open to visitors, who can imagine they are coal miners descending
to the depths of the earth at The
Big Pit – exactly what it says it is – a massive
mile-deep hole in the ground.
The "Fairest
Abbey in all Wales" is in Neath, founded in 1130 by Baron
Richard de Granville. You can visit it on your way out of Neath,
and view it lit up at night on your way home. You’ll feel
like a monk, armed with the huge cartoon-like key to open the
door.
Pendine Sands is flat, sandy and very very
long. The six mile-long beach is famous for speed and there is
a Museum
of Speed in Pendine. Land speed record attempts were made
there in the 1920s. Sir Malcolm Campbell broke the world record
driving Blue Bird at over 170mph and the first non-stop flight
across the Atlantic (from Britain to the USA) took off here. The
flight, by Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison, left Pendine Sands in
July 1933 and took 34 hours.
For a huge collection of historical buildings
from all over Wales in one place – visit the National
History Museum (formerly the Museum of Welsh Life), where
historical Welsh buildings of importance come to retire. All over
the country buildings typical of their area or era are carefully
dismantled and rebuilt in the 50 acres surrounding St Fagans Castle,
a 1580s country house, making it one of Europe's largest open-air
museums.
Everyone knows about Welsh dragons, but what
about the dungeons? Castell
Carreg Cennen is the most romantically poised castle in Wales,
balanced on a rocky outcrop, in the middle of green patchwork
fields. Take your torch down to the natural cave underneath, used
to keep prisoners.
