Cardiff Castle
Photo via Wikimedia Commons — licence & author.
2,000 years of history in the capital
This is a quick reference, not a full walked guide. The facts below — location, parking, grid reference and access — are maintained from our dataset, but we haven't published our own first-hand write-up of Cardiff Castle yet. Know it well? Help us get it right.
A remarkable layering of 2,000 years in the heart of the capital: Roman fort walls, a Norman motte-and-keep, and a riotously opulent Victorian-Gothic mansion created for the 3rd Marquess of Bute by the architect William Burges, with air-raid shelter tunnels hidden inside the ramparts. Climb the Norman keep for the city view and tour the extravagant Bute apartments, where every room is a jewel-box of colour and gilding. Bute Park and the city centre are right on the doorstep.
Getting there
Cardiff Castle is in Cardiff, South-East Wales. It's roughly 0 min (0.1 miles) from Cardiff , and within reach of Caerphilly (21 min) and Chepstow (67 min).
The nearest parking: City-centre car parks (Sophia Gardens, Castle Street NCP). Grid reference ST 181 766 — works on any OS map and doesn't need a phone signal.
Good to know
Climb the Norman keep for the city view and tour the extravagant Bute apartments. Bute Park and the city centre are on the doorstep.
On the map
View Cardiff Castle on OpenStreetMap ↗, or open it in the Explore Wales trip planner to add it to a day out with drive times and offline maps.
Staying over?
Cardiff makes a relaxed base for exploring the area — worth staying over to catch an early start or a golden-hour finish.
Browse places to stay near Cardiff ↗ opens Booking.com — needs signalNearby places
Make Cardiff Castle part of a day out
Add it to a trip in the free Explore Wales planner — chained drive times, weather, campsite suggestions, and offline maps for when the signal drops.