Fun on the beach and cliffs of Rhossili Bay
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Cardiff and southeast Wales
Home to some sixty percent of the countryâs population, the southeastern corner of Wales is one of Britainâs most industrialized regions. People and industry are most heavily concentrated around the sea ports and former mining valleys, though quiet hills and beaches are only ever a few miles away. Once the worldâs busiest coal port, Cardiff is today the countryâs commercial, cultural and political powerhouse, an upbeat capital offering stellar museums, a storybook castle and invigorating nightlife. Beyond Cardiff, Wales unfolds from the English border in a beguilingly rural manner.
The Guardian statue overlooking Parc Arael Griffin in Abertillery
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The River Wye flows forth from its mouth at the fortress town of Chepstow, where youâll find one of the most impressive castles in a land where few towns are without one. In the Wyeâs beautiful valley lie the spectacularly placed ruins of Tintern Abbey, downstream from the old county town of Monmouth. Industrialization intensifies as you travel west to the River Usk, which spills out into the Bristol Channel at Newport, Walesâ third-largest conurbation, and home to the remains of an extensive Roman settlement in adjacent Caerleon.
To the west and north are the world-famous Valleys, once the coal- and iron-rich powerhouse of the British Empire. This is the Wales of popular imagination: hemmed-in valley floors packed with seemingly never-ending lines of slate-roofed terraced houses, slanted towards the pithead. Although all the deep mines have closed, the area is still one of tight-knit towns, with a rich working-class heritage displayed in some gutsy museums and colliery tours, such as the Big Pit at Blaenavon and the Rhondda Heritage Park in Trehafod.
Immediately west of Cardiff, and a world away from the industrial hangover of the Valleys, is the lush Vale of Glamorgan and Glamorgan Heritage Coast, which stretches westwards to include the neighbouring county of Bridgend. The entire area is dotted with stoic little market towns and chirpy seaside resorts â notably Barry in the east and Porthcawl in the west.
West again is Walesâ second city, Swansea. Bright, breezy and brash, Swansea is renowned for its nightlife and is undergoing rapid development, particularly along its historic waterfront. Like Cardiff, the city grew principally on the strength of its now revitalized docks, from where the coast arcs round from the Port Talbot steelworks in the east to the elegant holiday town of Mumbles on the jaw of the magnificent Gower peninsula in the west. Gower was Britainâs first-ever designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and remains a microcosm of rural Wales, with its grand beaches, rocky headlands, ruined castles and bracken heaths roamed by wild horses.
GETTING AROUND Southeast Wales
By car Southeast Wales is by far the easiest part of the country to travel around. Swift dual carriageways connect with the M4, bringing all corners of the region into close proximity.
By bus and train This is the only region of Wales with a half-decent train service, and most suburban and rural services interconnect with Cardiff, Newport or Swansea. Bus services fill in virtually all of the gaps, though often rather slowly, while Sunday services are often dramatically reduced.
Cardiff and around
Official capital of Wales only since 1955, the buoyant city of CARDIFF (Caerdydd) has, since the turn of the millennium, witnessed a remarkable evolution from a large town to a truly international city, with massive developments in the centre as well as on the rejuvenated waterfront. With a reputation as a party town, allied to lots of top-class sport and a cultural attractions, it is one of the UKâs most enticing destinations.
The sights are clustered around fairly small distinct districts. Easily navigable on foot, the commercial centre is bounded by the River Taff on the western side. The Taff flows past the high stone walls of Cardiffâs castle and the Principality Stadium, the cityâs two defining landmarks. Near the southeastern tip of the castle walls is Cardiffâs main crossroads, where the great Edwardian shopping boulevards, Queen Street and High Street, conceal a world of arcades, great stores and run-of-the-mill malls. North of the castle, a series of white Edwardian buildings is home to the National Museum and Gallery, City Hall and Cardiff University.
Northwest of the centre, the well-heeled suburb of Pontcanna is home to the cityâs best restaurants; beyond is the village-like suburb of Llandaff, built around the cityâs patchwork cathedral. A mile south of the commercial centre lies Cardiff Bay, revitalized since the construction of a barrage to form a vast freshwater lake. Home to the National Assembly and Wales Millennium Centre, among many other attractions, itâs a bona fide destination in its own right.
Brief history
Cardiffâs origins date back to Roman times, when tribes from Isca settled here, building a small village alongside the Roman military fort. The fort was largely uninhabited from the Romansâ departure until the Norman invasion, when William the Conqueror offered Welsh land to his knights if they could subdue the local tribes. In 1093, Robert FitzHamon built a simple fort on a moated hillock that still stands today in the grounds of the castle. A town grew up in the lee of the fortress, developing into a small fishing and farming community that remained a quiet backwater until the end of the eighteenth century.
Industrial expansion
The Bute family, lords of the manor of Cardiff, instigated new developments on their land, starting with the construction of a canal from Merthyr Tydfil (then Walesâ largest town) to Cardiff in 1794. The second Marquess of Bute built the first dock in 1839, opening others in swift succession. The Butes, who owned massive swathes of the rapidly industrializing south Wales valleys, insisted that all coal and iron exports use the family docks in Cardiff, and it subsequently became one of the busiest ports in the world. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Cardiffâs population had soared to 170,000 from its 1801 figure of around one thousand, and the ambitious new Civic Centre in Cathays Park was well under way.
Changing fortunes
The twentieth century saw the cityâs fortunes rise, plummet and rise a...