• Trip Around the World 2025
    In the Carreg Cennen castle ruins
    In the Carreg Cennen castle ruinsThe castle in the distanceGetting closer!And we've arrivedView from the castle rampartsVideo of the rampart viewOne of the remaining towersThey had a great vantage point from hereHeading into the tunnel to reach the caveTunnel leading to the cave1Inside the cave under the castle, Chris wasn't a fan as he couldn't stand upAnother view from the rampartsView of the castle from the outsideVideo of the castle exterior and cliff faceOne side of the castle was built onto this cliff faceOur authentic Welsh lunch, the soup was called Cawl, and we had more bara brith!In front of our second castle of the day, OystermouthThe front of Oystermouth castleThe back wall of Oystermouth CastleVideo of Oystermouth Castle interiorThe dilapidated ruins of Swansea CastleVideo of Swansea Castle ruins and surrounding city

    Carreg Cennen Castle & Swansea

    August 20, 2025 in Wales ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Today we visited Carreg Cennen Castle, Swansea(the second largest city in Wales), and Merthyr Tydfil.

    We started our day with coffee and welsh cakes at our lodging, and then hit the road for Carreg Cennen Castle. When we arrived we saw the castle rising over the nearby hills; it was built in quite the location! We climbed up the hill to check out the ruins, and enjoyed panoramic views of the nearby landscape. One super unique aspect of the castle is that it has a tunnel running from inside the castle down into the mountain it was built on. This tunnel leads to a very deep manmade cave, and archaeologists aren’t sure what it was used for. Some theories are that the cave may even predate the castle!

    After exploring the ruins we headed to our next stop Swansea. This was Wales’ second largest city, and our first stop here was Oystermouth Castle on the city’s edge. We didn’t go inside this one other than the courtyard, but enjoyed views of it from the park that surrounds it. After checking out the castle, we headed into town and checked out Swansea’s indoor market. The market had less food vendors than we were hoping for, but we did find Welsh cakes that were some of the best we’ve found yet! After the market we wandered over to an additional castle ruin in the middle of the city, but this one was so destroyed there wasn’t a ton to see. Overall Swansea wasn’t too exciting, and we felt that Cardiff was by far the most fun big city in Wales.

    After Swansea we drove to Merthyr Tydfil and our AirBnb for the night. Once we unpacked we walked to dinner at a local Indian spot, and then called it a night!    Read more