E. Brian Davies

Explorer Tom Cardiff Castle has a Roman fort hiding inside its later walls, an ancient layer with the cheek to reappear when a Victorian marquess wanted to build something new. Look past the grand medieval and Gothic shapes; the real surprise begins under your feet and in the stonework around you. The Romans established a fort here in the first century, close to the River Taff and Bristol Channel. Successive forts occupied roughly the same site. Around the year 300, a later fort gained stone walls backed by an earth bank for coastal defence. Norman and medieval builders reused the ground, and the castle developed in new directions. By the nineteenth century, much of the Roman layer had disappeared from sight. The Roman remains were rediscovered in 1888 during building work for the third Marquess of Bute. Some original masonry can be seen in the visitor centre and around the castle, while sections of the walls above were reconstructed by the Bute family from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth. That difference matters: ancient foundations and Victorian rebuilding both tell parts of the place's story. I can imagine a Roman guard objecting that the new battlements look too tidy; his complaint is invented, but the layers are there to examine. Cardiff Castle is a ticketed visitor attraction in the heart of the city, so check its current entry details. Give the Roman traces their own time rather than treating them as an introduction to later rooms. The site has carried forts, a castle and a lavish house. Few city-centre walks let you cross so many centuries without changing streets; just do not ask me to direct the Roman patrol.