A review of Castell Coch popped up on Instagram as a fairy tale castle that you just couldn’t miss in Wales. We were planning our holiday to Wales and Hubby said we obviously need to go see some castles. Smallest Child is all about princesses so it seemed the perfect place to visit. The fact it has a funny name obviously definitely didn’t come into me wanting to visit. Nope, not at all.
You can actually see this place from the main road and when I saw it I was like “Oh my God that’s really high up the mountain.” To be honest I was little bit scared how we were going to get up there. Actually it’s really not a bad drive at all. It’s not hideously steep so you don’t have to worry about that one too much. As you can see from the photo, they are doing some work on it so it’s not quite as fairy tale castle as it normally is.
All is not what it seems…
Fun fact for you. Actually it’s not as a medieval castle fairy tale castle at all it is actually Victoria on the site of original medieval castle but it looks pretty cool. So who cares? Sadly, it’s a little bit like Waddesdon Manor in that it’s an amazing place, but it was never really lived in that much. Certainly not by the family that built it, which is quite sad. All is not lost though because it’s now a used quite a lot as a film location. You might have spotted it in Dr Who, Wolf Hall and The Worst Witch. Personally I think it’s got a massive Game of Thrones vibes going on. What do you think?
The rooms
Shockingly for a castle this big, it doesn’t actually have that many bedrooms. It’s like a four-bedroom house, just a really fancy four-bedroom house with a massive courtyard in the middle. But the decoration of this place is just mind-boggling. Basically the entire castle is decorated to display how much the two people that built it love each other. I did ask Hubby why he didn’t decorated our house to show you how much he loves me. He didn’t reply! The man of the house apparently is not a fan of the monkeys that are in the main bedroom because they’re a little bit “saucy”.
Castell Coch is supposed to be a medieval castle, but they were also trying to build it as like a modern Victorian pad. So they’ve taken loads of medieval details and included those but then just added Victorian adjustments to it. So it’s got murder holes and a portcullis but then it’s also got a door bell which obviously you wouldn’t have had in a normal medieval castle
If you can manage the numerous stairs right up to the top of the tallest turret then you can walk around the outside. places like this can make me a little bit nervous that one of the children might accidentally throw themselves off the top of the wall. But actually here the walls are exceptionally high and there’s no risk to anybody’s going to slip.
Fforest Fawr
Castell Coch itself isn’t actually that big big and after about 2 hours of looking around quite easily could have just had our picnic and gone on to our cottage, except it wasn’t ready yet so we needed to kill a little bit more time. I spotted a sign that showed some family walks around the woods and off we decided to go. Thankfully there is Forest Fawr just above Castell Coch and it looked like a great place to go and explore.
It turns out that if you are following the yellow trail it’s a circular route, but there is a hard way and there is a easier way to go. We followed the yellow route starting nearest the castle which ends up coming out near the entrance to the road near the entrance gates. This way has got a very steep hill to walk up but there’s no equivalent hill on the way down so if we done it in reverse it would have been so much easier.
The forest itself is absolutely beautiful. It’s just really, really lovely woodland and then in the middle of it we found this stream/drain. The kids were straight in there. They wanted to explore it which one of them decided that they needed the toilet fairly soon after that so we couldn’t hang around for too long, but there’s loads of crisscrossing trails.
Other things in the forest
There’s a sculpture trail in here. There’s a pub in here as well. There’s the three bears caves which we didn’t get chance to explore, but I’ve had a look at the photos of them and they look really quite cool. I think the kids would have enjoyed having the look around those?
I don’t think you could spend more than a couple of hours at the castle itself. You absolutely could spend a full day on the site if you went to explore the words as well. Now you don’t have to go to the castle to go to the woods as it has its own car park.
Again, these woods were used as film location; Merlin and Sherlock have been shot here. I think it’s because it’s so close to Cardiff and so it gets used quite a lot for filming and they are really nice words. If you do decide to park in the forest car park instead of the castle car park, it’s free up there, but I don’t believe there are toilets.
This review of Castell Coch review is based on our experiences at the time of our visit. Things can change over time, including the facilities available. If you have any specific requirements such as access it’s always best to check with the site directly before visiting. If anything I’ve said in this review is no longer accurate then please do let me know. Thank you.
Our Castell Coch review
I think this place is really cool. It’s so different from pretty much any other castle that we’ve been to and we have been to a lot of castles! Partially because it’s a fake castle, but also I think just the layout of it is really unique and the interiors are it are just stunning. There’s loads to see and then you’ve got the added bonus of a really beautiful woodland to explore as well. Definitely one to go and see
Admission cost
A family ticket is £30.40. Visit their website for the latest prices. We have CADW membership through CSSC so got in for free.
Parking / How to get there
Parking – limited on-street
Address – Castell Coch, Tongwynlais, Cardiff CF15 7JS
Toilets
On-site including baby change
Food
Cafe on-site. Picnics allowed.
What else is there to do nearby?
This review of Castell Coch is part of one of our holiday to Wales. We always try and keep our holidays as cheap as possible by using discounts. And in this case, I used a CSSC discounts that we didn’t have to pay. You can read all of my other reviews of the places that we visited in Wales here. Or read about our week in south west Wales which included a few places near Cardiff.
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Hi, I’m Vicky. My husband and I live in Aylesbury with our three children; a 14 year old son, an 12 year old son and a 6 year old daughter. I (mostly) love spending time together as a family. We visit all kinds of places and we’re quite happy to drive a fair distance for a decent day out. A few years ago I decided to set up Free Time with the Kids as a way to share our experiences of these family days out.
You’ll find the essential information you need to know before your visit that can be surprisingly hard to find out. Where do I park? How much will it cost me to get in? Are there any discounts available? Are there loos? Can I take a picnic or get food? My aim is to be your go-to guide for all your free and cheap family days out across Bucks, Beds, Oxon, Herts & slightly beyond. I really hope you find the reviews helpful. If there’s anywhere that you’d recommend please get in touch contact@freetimewiththekids.com or get in touch via Facebook