Cardiff Castle

Quick visit to Cardiff Castle. Was impressed to see that some of the cobble stones, which are very inaccessible to me as a wheelchair user had be replaced with paving. This created accessibility while also maintaining the heritage of the site. Cardiff Castle is right in the city centre and easily accessible by public transport which I utilised, unfortunately I don’t drive but didn’t spot any parking nearby. The visitors centre did have an automatic door opener but unfortunately it did not seem to be working on this visit despite looking relatively new. I believe the accessible toilets were located within the visitors centre but couldn’t access them due to the aforementioned issue. Audio guides were available.

One of the things I love about Cardiff is how central it is for transport, food, shopping and culture. As a Scot, we've got Edinburgh Castle, but the grounds are up the Royal Mile, which is pretty steep with alternating terrain and cobbles. That's why it's refreshing to find castle grounds with a level approach that's so close to so much. If you visit, make sure to check out the Animal Wall, a long stone wall that leads from the Castle Street Gate to the entrance to Bute Park. The wall is lined with carvings of all types of animals, leering over the wall. I paid a visit to the castle grounds at the start of December 2024.

First time visiting the Castle as a venue, and overall a great experience. We had wheelchair ticket + carer and were seated on the platform with other wheelchair users and ambulatory disabled. View pretty good, would have been better if we were allowed to use the empty space given over for ambulatory disabled, but that space did fill up in the end as people realised what it was i think. We got there 2hrs early, on the advice of the man on the gate, but that was fine for soaking up the atmosphere, and all the front row and best spots had gone despite that: So maybe even earlier another time! It's open air and the weather was kind but needed a coat as evening went on as its windy on the platform.