Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting There & Away
Frequent trains head to the Barry and Barry Island train stations from Cardiff Central (one
way/return £3.10/4.70, 30 minutes).
Cardiff bus services depart every 15 minutes during the day (routes 92-96, £2.40, one
hour), but hourly in the evening and on Sundays.
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Tinkinswood & St Lythan's
Burial Chambers
Neolithic standing stones, stone circles and burial chambers are a dime a dozen in Wales -
so much so that many of them don't even make it into tourist brochures and maps. That's
the case with this mysterious duo, each standing in a forlorn field 7 miles west of Cardiff,
orientated towards the rising sun.
The 6000-year-old Tinkinswood chamber consists of a wall of stones supporting a
mammoth 7.4m-long, 36-tonne limestone capstone, thought to be the largest of its kind in
Britain. It was once covered in an earth mound, but excavations in 1914 left one half of it
open after pottery and the bones of 50 people were removed. A brick pillar was then ad-
ded to prop up the capstone. The entrance to the mound is approached by a curving aven-
ue of stones, and other stones have been arranged nearby. The site was once known as
Castell Carreg - the fairy castle.
THE BIG CHEESE
Any festival that includes a Cheese Olympics and a Tommy Cooper Tent has got to be worth a look. On the last
weekend of July, Caerphilly welcomes more than 70,000 people to the
Big Cheese
(
www.caerphilly.gov.uk/big-
cheese
;
admission free; Jul) , three days of family-oriented fun and games that offers everything from fire-
works to falconry, comedy acts to cheese tasting, and medieval battle re-enactments, food and craft stalls, archery
demonstrations, live music and a traditional funfair.
The Cheese Olympics are held on the Friday evening, and include cheese throwing, rolling and stacking. The
Tommy Cooper Tent - named after the much-loved British comedian, who was born in Caerphilly and died in
1984 - stages comedy acts, including a Tommy Cooper tribute act. A statue to Cooper, in his trademark fez and
with a rabbit at his feet, overlooks the castle near the tourist office.
Dating from a similar age, the St Lythan's cromlech is considerably smaller, consisting
of three supporting stones capped with a large, flat stone, forming a chamber nearly 2m
