Cardiff.

Roman defences, a medieval keep and richly decorated Victorian rooms share this city-centre site. Come for the contrast between a working fortress and an aristocratic home.

The castle makes Cardiff’s long history visible within one enclosure. The exposed keep and defensive walls give a very different experience from the elaborate house interiors, so it rewards visitors interested in both military architecture and the imaginative world of the Gothic Revival.

The castle’s walls conceal more than one period of building. Roman forts occupied the site centuries before the Normans raised their mound and timber defences here. Stone rebuilding followed in the twelfth century, creating the shell keep that gives the grounds their medieval focus. Later owners repeatedly altered the residential buildings as military needs changed. The most dramatic transformation came with the third Marquess of Bute and architect William Burges. Wealth linked to the South Wales coal industry funded a highly personal Gothic Revival home, filled with carved details and elaborate decoration. Its historical appearance should not be mistaken for an untouched medieval interior. The twentieth century added another layer: air-raid shelters were built within the walls during the Second World War. In 1947 the Bute family gave the castle to Cardiff. Looking between the keep, house and enclosing walls reveals how successive generations reused the same strategic site.

• The shell keep rises above the grounds on a medieval earth mound.
• The Arab Room has an intricate Moorish-style ceiling.
• The banqueting hall and library contain elaborate carved fireplaces.

Allow time for both the house interiors and the outdoor defences.

Combine the castle with neighbouring Bute Park or the arcades across Castle Street.