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This region of Wales is extremely diverse, extending from the western tip of Pembrokeshire to the borderland Wye Valley. The two biggest cities in Wales, Swansea and Cardiff, are located here on the south coast. Cardiff was officially appointed capital of Wales in 1955. Until then, the title was also being contested by Carmarthen and Swansea. Cardiff is also the capital of Rugby, as anyone who has ever heard the swell of Welsh voices during a Rugby Union test match at Cardiff Arms Park will attest.
Both Swansea and Cardiff boast new waterfront developments, and away from the cities there's plenty to do. The breezy Gower Peninsula was Britain's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (much of Britain seems to qualify, quite legitimately, for that title) and new attractions are springing up. The National Botanic Garden of Wales will open in May 2000, centred on the largest single-span glasshouse in the world. The new Millennium Coastal Park near Llanelli covers over 12 miles of coastline.
South Wales is also synonymous with coal mining. Valleys once black with coal dust and marred by slag heaps are now green again, with the slagheaps turfed over. You can visit attractions such as Big Bear Pit near Blaenavon and the Rhondda Heritage Park near Pontypridd, where ex-miners will show you around and describe the mining process. The people in these parts are known for their friendliness. "Now sit down boyo and we'll talk about it over a pint."
Click on the headings to find out more:
Cardiff, capital of Wales and its biggest city, was occupied by the Romans in 75 AD and has seen its fortunes fluctuate ever since. Early in the 20th century Cardiff was a boomtown - the world's busiest coal exporting port. It was a wild place, typified by Tiger Bay - the old hard-drinking dockside area where blood was spilled along with beer as fist fights erupted over minor disputes. These days, Tiger Bay has become genteel and has been renamed Cardiff Bay - but let's face it, the former name is vastly more memorable and evocative! Later in the century, demand for coal fell and the docks declined. Heavily bombed during World War II, Cardiff passed out of fashion, if indeed it had ever been fashionable.
In 1986, Sir Kingsley Amis's Booker Prize-winning novel The Old Devils portrayed Cardiff as a place for old men to drink themselves to death. The late Sir Kingsley Amis (father of novelist Martin Amis) knew much about Wales - he worked as a lecturer in English at the University College of Swansea from 1948 to 1961.
Now, Cardiff's star is rising again. The city, now the home of the Welsh National Assembly, styles itself the "fastest growing capital city in Europe" and has launched major urban renewal programs. One big project, the 75,000-seater Millennium Stadium, was completed on time for the Rugby World Cup in 1999, which saw Australia take the coveted trophy in front of a capacity crowd. Another project is the giant freshwater marina on Cardiff Bay, which has transformed the stinking, oozing mud, which typified waterfront Cardiff for the past 150 years into a pleasant man-made lake, lined with highly-priced residential developments. Perhaps one day they'll rename it Tiger Bay - as long as it doesn't affect real estate values!
Cardiff's National Museum of Wales is one of the finest buildings in Wales, distinguished by its colonnaded portico and statue of Welsh politician David Lloyd George in oratorical pose. Enter and you'll find fascinations are diverse. There's an engaging exhibition on the history of Wales and a very impressive selection of Impressionist paintings. The paintings, including works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Pisarro, Manet and Degas, were donated by two local sisters, Gwendolyn and Margaret Davies.
Cardiff Castle is a magnificent edifice with a turbulent history, starting out as a Roman Fort and passing to several powerful families over the following 700 years. It's very different to other castles in Wales and England, because the architect who had most effect on it, William Burges, was not born until the 19th century. Burges (1827-81) specialised in Victorian Gothic. He was a passionate medievalist who hated everything the Industrial Revolution had wrought and would have been happy to move straight back in the Dark Ages, had a time machine been available. He would dress in medieval costume (in the privacy of his own room, of course - such fantasies were frowned on in the Victorian era) and would discuss medieval topics with anyone who would listen. He turned Cardiff Castle into a sort of 19th century Gothic fantasy, complete with heraldic symbols, gargoyles and a fabulous Octagon Tower housing a Chaucer Room decorated with themes from the Canterbury Tales. The Arab Room, with its Islamic inscriptions, gilded ceiling and lapis lazuli trimmings, was completed by Arab craftsmen in 1881, the year Burges died.
Llandaff Cathedral, 2.5 miles northwest of Cardiff, features a striking aluminium sculpture of Christ in Majesty by Jacob Epstein, the American-born British sculptor noted for his busts and his massive, controversial works. The first church here was built in the 6th century, replaced by the Normans with a stone version 700 years later. Hit by bombs in World War II, the church was reconstructed and reopened in 1957.
Caerphilly Castle, nine miles north of Cardiff, is a massive, 13th century structure with a fairytale appearance, a moat and a buttressed wall. Cromwell's troops tried to blow up its huge round "drum" tower during the English Civil War, but only succeeded in making it lean out of the perpendicular. Caerphilly itself is a small village, which became noted for the crumbly cheese of the same name it once produced. The castle remains but the cheese is mainly produced elsewhere.
St Fagans, four miles west of Cardiff on the A4232, houses an open-air Museum of Welsh Life. It's worth stopping off and having a look. Various cottages and shops have been brought here from around the country. People still work in them and it's a bit like a trip back in time - though it becomes very crowded on public holidays.
The Rhondda Valley was once the most famous coal-mining region in Britain. The coal pits, little miners' cottages and Nonconformist Chapels are all enduring images of Wales. Not so enduring are the racking, coal-dust-laden coughs of the miners each morning as they washed and prepared to go back into the deadly pits. Bronchial complaints proliferated and mining disasters were, tragically, all too common. The coughs have gone, but the fine brass and silver bands and numerous male-voice choirs perpetuate the great musical tradition of the area. Mining itself has virtually ceased.
The Big Pit Mining Museum at Blaenafon opened as a museum in 1983, three years after the Big Pit closed as a working coal mine. You learn a lot at Big Pit, but nothing leaves as much of an impression as when you don a miner's helmet and lamp and descend in a cage 300 feet down the mineshaft for a tour of underground workings conducted by ex miners.
Swansea is the second-largest town in Wales, set on the mouth of the River Tawe on the curve of Swansea Bay. Dylan Thomas grew up here, although he's more closely associated with Laugharne. Thomas, who drank himself to death on whisky in the US in 1953 (aged 39), is commemorated in Swansea by the new self-guided Dylan Thomas Trail, starting at the smart literary centre bearing his name. The trail leads past the poet's statue and theatre to Wind Street, where Thomas worked as a local reporter; and Salubrious Passage, where Dylan's Book Store, owned by Thomas expert Jeff Towns, is a treasure-trove of antiquarian books. It also leads to the BBC studios from which Thomas made many of his celebrated broadcasts. The Cross Keys is among many pubs the great man visited. So is the Bush Inn, where Thomas drank before leaving on his last American tour. To be honest, there must be very few pubs in Swansea or thereabouts that the great man didn't visit. He liked a pint or two, but you can't hold that against him - especially when the man could write like an angel. The poet coped with his American tours by sinking into reckless drinking bouts - in which all too many people were happy to participate. A plaque on the new Dylan Thomas Trail marks his birthplace in the Uplands area.
Oystermouth and Mumbles both fall within the Swansea city limits. The mile of pubs around the bay at Mumbles is said to offer one of the world's best pub crawls. Thomas is sure to have tried it. When you've finished that one, you won't know your Mumbles from your Oystermouth.
Some odd things happen at Mumbles. In 1999, Swansea coastguards issued a shipping warning after thieves dropped a 10-foot half-ton gorilla - made from fibreglass - into the sea after stealing it from Mumbles Pier. The fibreglass ape, named Nancy and wearing brown trousers and a white T-shirt, was never seen again. Police Sergeant Phil Davis of the Swansea force was quoted as saying: "The chances of finding her are slim - she certainly can't swim."
Oystermouth, by the way, is the site of an 11th-century graveyard where lies the notoriously prudish Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) compiler of the Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of Shakespeare's works with all the rude bits (and the naughty inferences) cut out or rewritten. Bowdlerised, in other words. Fortunately, Bowdler's attempts to improve on the bard didn't work - Family Shakespeare is long out of print. Bowdler was busy bowdlerising Edward Gibbon's classic text The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire when he died. The orgy-loving emperors of ancient Rome possibly proved too much for his constitution.
Swansea Castle was largely destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's army in 1647 - you can inspect what's left.
Carmarthen, a town on a bluff about the Tywi, is reputedly the birthplace of Merlin the legendary wizard. The Welsh name for the city is Caerfyrddin, meaning "Merlin's City" (another example of how distant are the English and Welsh languages!)
Laugharne, with its old harbour and castle and dramatic views of the Taf and Tywi estuaries, is best known for its links with Dylan Thomas, who lived at Boat House in Cliff Walk, just behind the castle. Thomas wrote many of his poems in a shed in the garden.
"
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart."
Thomas always vigorously denied that the fictitious town of Llareggub, setting of his best-known play "Under Milk Wood", was based on the town and people of Laugharne. The great poet slipped into "that good night" (as he once termed death) during a prodigious whisky-drinking binge while on tour in New York. His body was flown back to Wales and he now lies beneath a plain wooden cross in Laugharne's little churchyard.
"Never be lucid, never state,
If you would be regarded great,"- He once wrote.
And on another occasion:
"Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion."
Dylan's poetry was famous within his lifetime, but after his death his name also became popular. The name Dylan comes from the Mabinogion, a collection of 11 medieval Welsh tales. The word means "sea".
Caerleon means "Camp of the Legion" in Welsh, and for good reason. Caerleon is one of only three fortress settlements in Britain built for the elite legions of Rome. The legion in Caerleon's case was the 2nd Augustan Legion, deployed in Wales to crush local resistance and give the rebellious Welsh a taste of cold steel - or cold bronze. The Romans didn't just build a fortress, they built a whole town, complete with a fine stone amphitheatre seating 6000, where troops could relax at the weekend watching gladiators slaughter each other. The amphitheatre's great stone foundations survive, and an adjoining baths complex opened to the public in 1980. The Legionary Museum gives an idea of the original atmosphere of the area.
Newport lies close to Caerleon and encroaches on it in some parts. The best known ancient building in Newport is the Cathedral of St Woolos, with Norman arches, a medieval tower and other parts dating back 1400 years. It didn't become a cathedral until 1949, during which time the name Woolos had rather passed out of fashion. You don't meet many boys called Woolos nowadays - they're more likely to be called Dylan. The radiant east window is worth a look - it was erected in 1963. In an adjacent art gallery stands Jacob Epstein's bust of W.H. Davies, the "tramp poet" who made Newport his home. Stand and stare at this as long as you like. As W.H. Davies once wrote: What is life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.
Monmouth offers fine Tudor and Georgian buildings. Its 11th century castle was the birthplace of Harry of Monmouth, the future King Henry V. He was born in the Great Tower. The castle is in ruins (Oliver Cromwell again), but the 17th century Great Castle House survives and is noted for its fine decorative ceilings. The castle surrendered peacefully to the Cromwellian forces in 1646, but the following year it was largely destroyed nevertheless. When you see a ruined castle, suspect Cromwell. His forces destroyed ("slighted" was the term used at the time) about 50 or 60 of them. In Monmouth town itself, statues of King Henry V and C.S. Rolls stand side by side. Rolls was a pioneer airman. He became better known when he met a chap called Royce and they decided to design a motorcar.
Tintern Abbey, set inspirationally in a quiet meadow in a bend of the Usk River overlooked by wooded hills, is one of those places that seems designed to soothe the soul. It's one of the most exquisitely beautiful ruins in all Britain and one of the finest relics of Britain's monastic age. Founded by Cistercian monks in 1131, Tintern Abbey was completed by the early 14th century, becoming the richest abbey in Wales, an achievement reflected at the time in its soaring archways and in the lavish tones of its majestic stained-glass windows. But the Abbey aroused the wrath of Henry VIII, who in 1537 shut it down, kicked out the monks gave the whole thing to The Lord of Chepstow. Neglected and abandoned, the Abbey crumbled into ruins. The British Government bought it in 1900 to be kept as a monument. The ruins were made famous by the poet William Wordsworth, one of the great voices of English Romanticism. In his poem Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey Wordsworth wrote of his love for:
the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear...
Catch Usk at dusk - Usk is a fine old market town on the River Usk. You can inspect the ruins of a Norman castle overlooking the river. The town offers a 13th century church and an 18th century bridge with five arches. It also offers some great fishing, if you're handy with a rod and line. Where are the best places to fish? Find a fisherman and ask
Cefntilla Court, two miles northeast of Usk, is the home of Lord Raglan. A museum at Cefntilla Court displays a few relics of the Crimean War. The First Baron Raglan commanded British troops in the Crimea and was responsible for the Charge of the Light Brigade. He didn't actually join the charge - he observed it through a telescope from a nearby hill. Those into knitting sweaters would know of 'Raglan sleeves', and another knitted garment to come out of the war was the balaclava.
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