Editor's picks
A local's shortlist — the places worth your time first, each with a tip.
Cardiff Castle & Bute Park
Landmark · City centre, at the top of St Mary Street
A Roman fort wall, a Norman motte and William Burges's riotous Victorian Gothic interiors for the third Marquess of Bute, with 130 acres of parkland running north behind it along the Taff.
Local tip: The Bute family gave the castle and the park to the city in 1947, which is why the green wedge runs unbroken from the castle wall out to Llandaff — you can walk or cycle from the city centre to the cathedral entirely through parkland. The Burges interiors need the paid tour; the Animal Wall along the south side is free and better than it sounds.
The Victorian & Edwardian arcades
Culture · Between St Mary Street, the Hayes and Queen Street
Six surviving glass-roofed shopping arcades — Castle, High Street, Morgan, Royal, Wyndham and Duke Street — threaded between the main streets, full of independent shops.
Local tip: Cardiff has more surviving Victorian and Edwardian arcades than any other UK city and calls itself the City of Arcades because of them. Spillers in Morgan Arcade claims to be the oldest record shop in the world, trading since 1894. Walk them in the rain, which is when the roofs earn their keep.
Cardiff Bay, the Senedd & Butetown
Landmark · Two miles south of the centre
The old Tiger Bay docks, cut off from the tide by the barrage in 1999 and turned into a freshwater lake, with the Senedd, the Wales Millennium Centre and the Norwegian Church around it.
Local tip: Read the Millennium Centre's inscription before you go in — Gwyneth Lewis's 'Creu Gwir fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen' and 'In These Stones Horizons Sing', in six-foot letters, and not a translation of one another. Behind the waterfront is Butetown, one of Britain's oldest multi-ethnic communities, whose history is the reason Cardiff exists at the scale it does. The Bay is the postcard; Butetown is the story.
City Road & Albany Road, Roath
Food · A mile north-east of the centre
The best eating in Cardiff, in a run of Turkish grills, Persian bakeries, Indian and Bangladeshi kitchens, Chinese supermarkets and late-night cafes along two ordinary residential high streets.
Local tip: City Road does the grills and the late hours; Albany Road does the delis, the bakeries and the daytime. Go on a weekday evening, order at a counter rather than a table, and ignore any list that sends you to the Bay for dinner.
Womanby Street
Nightlife · City centre, under the castle wall
A single short street of small music venues — Clwb Ifor Bach, Fuel, the Moon — that has been the spine of Cardiff's live scene for forty years.
Local tip: The 'Save Womanby Street' campaign in 2017 fought off flats and a hotel that would have closed the venues by noise complaint, and won planning protection for the street. Clwb Ifor Bach was founded in 1983 as a Welsh-language club and still is one — the name means Little Ifor's Club, and Welsh-language gigs are a large part of what it does.
Roath Park & the Scott Memorial Lighthouse
Hidden gemNature · Roath, two miles north-east of the centre
A long Victorian park built along a dammed brook, with a boating lake, a botanic glasshouse and a small white lighthouse standing in the water at the southern end.
Local tip: The lighthouse is a memorial to Captain Scott, whose Terra Nova sailed for Antarctica from Cardiff on 15 June 1910 and never came back — the city funded much of the expedition, which is why the memorial is here rather than in London. There is a model of the ship inside. Most people who feed the ducks beside it have no idea what it is.
Explore 129 places across Cardiff
Museums, landmarks, monuments, heritage sites and parks — mapped, with photos. The most notable spots first.
Museums & galleries
(4)
MuseumNational Museum Cardiff
Main site of the national museum of Wales, United Kingdom
MuseumFiring Line: Cardiff Castle Museum of the Welsh Soldier
Museum in Cardiff Castle, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Canfas Gallery
Art gallery.
Nantgarw China Works Museum
Museum.
Landmarks & architecture
(26)
Landmark
LandmarkCastell Coch
Castle in Tongwynlais, Cardiff, Wales
LandmarkSt Fagans Castle
Elizabethan manor house in St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales
LandmarkRuperra Castle
Manor house and mock castle in Caerphilly County Borough, Wales, UK
Landmark
Landmark
LandmarkCraig Ruperra Motte
Castle in Caerphilly County Borough, Wales, UK
Landmark
LandmarkCaer Castell
Motte-and-bailey castle in St Mellons, Cardiff, Wales, UK
LandmarkCentral Square
Square in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
LandmarkTwmpath Motte
Motte in Rhiwbina, Cardiff, Wales, UK
LandmarkBishop's Palace
Ruined palace in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales
LandmarkCardiff Bridge
Grade II listed building in Cardiff. Bridge in Cardiff, Wales
LandmarkMorganstown Castle Mound
Motte-and-bailey castle in Cardiff, Wales, UK
LandmarkCallaghan Square
Public square in Cardiff, Wales
LandmarkPorthkerry Viaduct
Grade II listed bridge in the United Kingdom
LandmarkLoudoun Square
Residential square in Cardiff, Wales
LandmarkDinas Powys Castle
Castle in Dinas Powys, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, UK
Landmark
LandmarkWenvoe Castle
Building in Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
Landmark
LandmarkOld Leckwith Bridge
Grade II* listed building in Cardiff
LandmarkVan House
Grade II listed building in Caerphilly. On a ridge overlooking Caerphilly to W and reached by minor road on N side of minor road from Caerphilly to Rudry
Hensol Castle
Castle.
Castell Meredydd
Castle.
Insole Court
Llandaff
Castle in Llandaff.
Monuments & memorials
(7)
MonumentWales Genocide Memorial
Memorial in Cardiff, Wales
MonumentStatue of Betty Campbell
2021 sculpture in Cardiff, Wales
MonumentScott Memorial
Tower in Roath Park Lake, Cardiff, Wales
MonumentMemorial to Joseph Benjamin Hemingway in St Mellons churchyard
Grade II listed building in City and County of Cardiff. Close to S porch of church.
Rumney War Memorial
Memorial.
The Family
Public artwork by Robert Thomas.
Aneurin Bevan
Public artwork.
Places of worship
(73)
ReligiousCardiff Metropolitan Cathedral
Roman Catholic cathedral in Cardiff, Wales
Religious
ReligiousNorwegian Church
Church in Cardiff Bay, Wales, United Kingdom, now an arts centre
Religious
ReligiousCardiff United Synagogue
Synagogue in Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Mary's Church, Cardiff
Church building in Butetown, Cardiff, Wales, and its predecessor
ReligiousBaitur Raheem Mosque
Purpose-built mosque in Cardiff
ReligiousSt Patrick's Church
Church in Grangetown, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Paul's Church
Church in Grangetown, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Teilo's Church
Church re-erected at St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt German's Church
Church in Cardiff, Wales
Religious
ReligiousChurch of St John the Evangelist, Cardiff
Church in Canton, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Anne's Church
Church in Roath, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousCrwys Road Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel
Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Cardiff
Religious
ReligiousSt Mary of the Angels R C Church, Canton
Church in Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Mary the Virgin Church
Church in Caerau, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousTabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel
Baptist chapel in Cardiff
ReligiousSt Augustine's Church
Church in Penarth, south Wales
ReligiousCity United Reformed Church
Presbyterian chapel in Tredegarville
ReligiousRoath Park English Presbyterian Church
Presbyterian chapel in Roath
ReligiousSt Peter's Church
Church in Peterstone Wentlooge, Newport, Wales
Religious
ReligiousPen-Rhiw Unitarian Chapel
Chapel rebuilt at St Fagan's Museum
ReligiousSt Edward's Church
Church in Roath, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousChurch of St James, Rudry
Grade II listed building in Caerphilly County Borough. Above S side of a minor road between Caerphilly and Machen, in a large quadrangular churchyard
ReligiousSt Catherine's Church
Church in Riverside, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousChurch of St. John the Baptist
Grade II listed building in City and County of Cardiff, Wales, UK, in the north-western corner of Llandaff Community where it abuts Radyr Community
ReligiousSt Saviour's Church
Church in Splott, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousChurch of Christ Church
Grade II listed building in City and County of Cardiff, near the centre of Radyr, just SW of the central crossroads
ReligiousChurch of St Michael and All Angels
Grade II listed building in Tongwynlais, in the middle of the village, side on to the main road, set in a small walled churchyard slightly above the road
ReligiousSt Alban-on-the-Moors
Church in Splott, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousTabernacle Chapel
Chapel in Roath, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt David Lutheran Church
Church in Fairwater, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Joseph's Church
Church in Gabalfa, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Dochdwy's Church
Church in Llandough (near Penarth), Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousSt Denys Church
Church in Lisvane, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Bridget's Church
Church in St. Brides Wentloog, Newport, Wales, United Kingdom
ReligiousSt Isan's Church
Church in Llanishen, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Edeyrn's Church
Church in Llanedeyrn, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Augustine's Church
Church in Rumney, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Mary's Church
Church in St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Michael's Church
Church in Michaelston-le-Pit, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
Religious
ReligiousChurch of St Andrew & St Teilo, Cathays
Grade II listed building in City and County of Cardiff, on the N side of the junction of Woodville Road and Flora Street
ReligiousSt Mary's Church
Church in Whitchurch, Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousSt Peter's Church
Church in Old Cogan, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousSt Cadoc's Church
Church in Pendoylan, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousSt Peter's Church
Church in Peterston-super-Ely, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousChurch Of St Barrwg
Church in United Kingdom
ReligiousSt Michael's Church
Church in Lower Machen, Newport, Wales
ReligiousSt Mary's Church
Church in Marshfield, Newport, Wales
ReligiousParish Church Of St Michael
Church in United Kingdom
ReligiousSt Cadoc's Church, Cadoxton
Church in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, UK
ReligiousMerthyr Dyfan Church
Church in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, UK
ReligiousChurch Of St Andrew
Church in St Andrew's Major, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, UK
ReligiousSt George's Church
Church in St Georges-super-Ely, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousSt Nicholas's Church
Church in St Nicholas, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousSt Bleiddian's Church
Church in St Lythans, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousSt Mary's Church
Church in Wenvoe, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
ReligiousEglwys Bresbyteriaid Cymru Y Crwys
Chapel in Cardiff, Wales
ReligiousTrinity Methodist English Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
Wesleyan chapel in Penarth
ReligiousSt.Joseph's Church, Penarth
Grade II listed building in Penarth
ReligiousParish Church of St. Mary The Virgin
Grade II listed building in Bonvilston
ReligiousChurch of St Ffraid
Grade II listed building in Vale of Glamorgan, in a sloping churchyard rising from Nant Rhych which forms its N and E border; in the centre of the hamlet; main entrance from E
ReligiousChurch of St John the Baptist
Grade II listed building in Sully, at the W end of the C20 urban development of Sully, the core of the former village, in a large roughly triangular churchyard on a corner site with Cog Road
ReligiousBethania
Calvinistic Methodist chapel in St Mellons
ReligiousChurch of St Michael
Grade II listed building in St Fagans. Off the road south from St Fagans and about 1000m from the Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin
ReligiousSt Nicholas's Greek Orthodox Church
Church in Cardiff
Dinas Powys Methodist Church
Place of worship.
Salem Baptist Chapel
Place of worship.
Croes y Parc Chapel
Place of worship.
Heritage & archaeology
(5)
Archaeological
ArchaeologicalMelingriffith Tin Plate Works
Defunct medieval metalworks in Wales
Sully Island
Archaeological site.
Tinkenswood Burial Chamber
Archaeological site.
St Lythans Burial Chamber
Archaeological site.
Parks & nature
(12)
ParkBute Park
Park in Cardiff, Wales
ParkRoath Park
Park in Cardiff, Wales, UK
Park
Park
ParkSt. John’s Gardens
Park in Cardiff, Wales
Park
Park
Park
Park
ParkCefn Mably Farm Park
Public park.
Trelai Park
Public park.
More to explore
(2)Walnut Tree Farm Park
Visitor attraction.
Welsh Hawking Centre
Zoo.
Data from Wikidata (CC0) & OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Images via Wikimedia Commons — see each credit. Listings are community-maintained and may be incomplete or out of date — verify hours and access before visiting.
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