Visiting Cardiff Castle

My wife and I were recently in Cardiff, researching the Official Travel Guide to the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Our Cardiff friends, the writers and photographers Pat and Charles Aithie, told us there was one thing we must not fail to do. Under no circumstances were we to miss a guided tour of Cardiff Castle. They even tried to get us behind the scenes to see some of the rooms not normally open to the public, but the man with the power to do that was away on holiday that week!

A guided tour of a castle, we wondered? How can Cardiff Castle be any different from dozens of other castles we've visited? As travel writers touring around Europe a lot, we do get to see more castles than most people. So why were Pat and Charles so adamant that we tour Cardiff Castle?

As soon as we started the tour of the castle, and the guide unlocked the door that led us into the room under the clocktower, we knew why. It was a room devoted to the subject of time, like something from a stage set or a fantasy film. There were signs of the zodiac, days of the week, suns, moons, hunting scenes that told of the seasons, painted tiles, gold and Gods.

This was just the first of the many magnficent rooms that we saw, and they were just a small portion of the many more that exist in Cardiff Castle. It really was a castle like no other we've ever seen anywhere.

You can read a little about the man behind the ornate decoration, William Burges, in my Article about Cardiff Castle. There's more about the Bute family too, who lived in this castle in the middle of Cardiff – though for only six weeks of each year. Read the Article by clicking here.

For more information about the Rugby World Cup Guide, click here.