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St Fagans

On the outskirts of Cardiff, this picturesque village is home to the open air Museum of Welsh Life in the extensive grounds of St Fagans Castle, a splendid late-16th century mansion. Founded in 1948 and now Wales’ most popular heritage attraction, this is a museum unlike any other, as it contains an assortment of buildings, collected from all over Wales, which have been re-erected in these glorious surroundings. Within the 50-acre site you’ll find a Celtic village, a 17th-century farmhouse from Gower, a tiny white-washed chapel of 1777 from Dyfed, a Victorian schoolroom from Lampeter, a pre-war grocery, a farmyard complete with animals, a terrace of iron-workers cottages, a toll keeper’s cottage and a House for the Future. Each of the 40 or so buildings has been furnished to reflect a period in its history.

As well as this superb collection, there’s also a pottery, tannery, bakery, smithy and three mills, most of them with workers demonstrating the original methods employed. The museum holds demonstrations on traditional craft skills, and visitors can enjoy a delightful stroll round the formal gardens, the Italian Garden, the modern knot garden and the terraces that descend to a series of fishponds. There are also galleries with exhibitions of costume, daily life and farming implements. The complex includes a traditional bakehouse selling organic bread, a restaurant and coffee shop, a play area for under-12s and a gift shop with products relating to the museum’s collections.

The Battle of St Fagans took place in 1648, when a detachment from the New Model army defeated Parliamentary troops who had defected. At the time there was dissention among some of the Parliamentarian troops, as they had not been given food or money for a long time, and they feared that they might eventually be sent home without remuneration. For that reason some of them fought under the Royal Standard under the command of the governor of Pembroke Castle.