Caerphilly
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Caerphilly

Caerphilly

South Wales market town wrapped around Caerphilly Castle, Britain's vast early concentric fortress

Caerphilly is a market town in the South Wales Valleys, about 11 km north of Cardiff. The reason to come here is the castle — Caerphilly Castle is the largest in Wales and the second largest in Britain after Windsor. Built in the 1260s by the Anglo-Norman lord Gilbert de Clare, it was the first concentric castle in Britain and one of the earliest in Europe, with a sequence of moats, islands, walls within walls, and an extraordinary southeast tower that leans out at nearly ten degrees — more than the famous campanile at Pisa.

The town itself is a pleasant, compact place wrapped tightly around the castle. The medieval street pattern survives, the indoor market on Castle Street is one of the best in the valleys, and the local cheese — pale, crumbly, faintly sour — has carried the town's name far beyond Wales. A Big Cheese festival every July fills the streets with stalls, falconry, fire-eaters, and a great deal of caerphilly tasting.

The town is also the birthplace of the comedian and magician Tommy Cooper, commemorated by a statue near the castle moat, and a useful base for a short circuit of South Wales sights — Castell Coch and Cardiff are a fifteen-minute train ride south, the green ridges of the Brecon Beacons begin half an hour to the north, and the old mining valleys of Rhondda and Rhymney rise on either side.

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Day Trips

Caerphilly is on the Rhymney railway line and Cardiff is fifteen minutes away by train — a much easier base for the Welsh capital than most travellers realise, with cheaper hotels and a calmer evening. Castell Coch, the Victorian-Gothic fantasy castle on the wooded hillside above Tongwynlais, is a thirty-minute walk south from Caerphilly Mountain or a short bus ride. The Brecon Beacons begin half an hour north by car and reward a full day's hiking; the Big Pit National Coal Museum at Blaenavon, an hour east, offers a underground tour of a real Welsh colliery that pairs well with a stop at Sultan the Pit Pony on the way.

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Eating Out

Caerphilly is small and most options are functional rather than ambitious — pubs around the castle moat, a handful of curry houses on Cardiff Road, the cafe inside the castle. For anything more serious, Cardiff is fifteen minutes away by train. That said, the indoor market is excellent for picking up Caerphilly cheese, Welsh cakes, and faggots-and-peas to take with you.

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Shopping

Caerphilly is not a shopping destination. The pedestrianised Cardiff Road has the usual British high-street chains and a few independents, and the indoor market is the main draw for visitors looking for cheese, Welsh cakes or a chunk of laver bread. For anything more serious, the centre of Cardiff is fifteen minutes away by train.

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Things to Do

Caerphilly's main attraction is the castle, and most visitors come for that alone. But the surrounding county is worth a day or two — woodland walks on Caerphilly Mountain, a giant earthwork sculpture of a pit pony at Parc Penallta, the canal-and-locks Trevethin trail, and easy rail connections south to Cardiff and Castell Coch.