Cardiff Castle – Cardiff Bay – Bute Park – Cathays Cemetery – Roath Park – Cathays Park Circular

Its setting on a flat, marshy plain at the mouth of a river surrounded by hills, not far from the South Wales coalfields, has defined Cardiff's basic geography.

Cardiff maybe more than any other city in the UK, demonstrates how a city can be turned around through regeneration. From having been the largest coal-exporting port in the world, the docklands area had become derelict by the 1980s as coal exports dried up. But by the 1990s the area was being transformed with the construction of the Cardiff Bay Barrage and had been renamed Cardiff Bay.

The name Bute is never far from the equation in the topography of the city, for it was the Bute family who developed the castle and the docks and gave Bute Park and Roath Park to the city. After the natural geography, the Bute family has had the largest influence on the shape of the city, the second Marquess, builder of the docks, being described as 'the creator of modern Cardiff'.

This walk divides neatly into two legs: the first leg (Waymarks 1-10, 7.7km) takes you through the city centre (don't miss the shopping arcades) and then along a filled-in canal to Cardiff Bay, where there is so much to enjoy; then back up the River Taff, along the Millennium Walkway and ending up in Bute Park;
the second leg (Waymarks 10-20, 8.5km) takes you through the Victorian green spaces of the city – the marvellous Bute Park, the fascinating Cathays Cemetery, the massive Roath Park with its lake and lighthouse, then meandering along the Roath Brook; the walk culminates at the university and the civic centre of the city.

Wales - South Wales - Cardiff - Town or city

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Walk id: 7453

Walk grade

Easy Walk

Length

10.1 Miles

Height gain

0 Metres

Duration

4 Hours 3 Mins

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