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Thursday 11thJune
Bridgend to Caerphilly
The hill outside the B&B looked rather daunting first thing in the morning. However we plodded away and were soon at the top. There were to be more climbs as the day wore on! At the village of Llanblethian we were expecting to find St Quentins Castle. The map was not helpful and some local builders couldn't help us either. The castle is thought to have been begun by Gilbert V de Clare (the grandson of Richard de Clare and Maud de Lacy through their son Gilbert) but was left incomplete at his death in 1314. As we were cycling out on the far side of the village we looked back and there was the castle nestling between the trees - never mind, perhaps another day!
Slightly further on was the castle of Old Beaupre, undergoing repairs as the present time so there was no access. We took a picture from a distance. The building originally was an medieval manor house built in the 14th century.
Slightly further again and into the village of Penmark (at the top of a hill!). We decided to ask this time for directions as our hit rate for the day was beginning to look a little sad. The castle lies on private ground and we obviously weren't encourage to enter the field in which it sat. We crept into the field to get a better view and crept out again! Some of these remains date from the 13th century
We were in Barry in time to buy our sandwiches for lunch although we didn't search out the castle here which is little more than a small fortified manor house built in the 13th/14th centuries. On the road into Penarth we stopped off at Cosmeston Lakes to eat lunch - the wind was blowing strongly and we donned our coats to keep warm. The senior citizens radio controlled model 
sailing boats were zipping along over the water with the sails almost capsizing in the waves. From here we moved on through Penarth, crossing over the Barrage in Cardiff Bay and arriving outside the Millenium Centre, then making the short journey up to Cardiff Castle. The first Norman Castle was built on the site by Robert FitzHamon in the late 11th century. During the 12th century Robert de Caen (also known as Robert "the Consul") reinforced the castle with stone and built the keep which still survives. Later on in the 13th century Gilbert de Clare refortified the castle in anticipation of a Welsh attack which never happened, so his work remains in solid repair to this day. Time was moving on so we decided to continue rather than visit the castle - we still had two more castles to visit.
We made our way to the Taff Trail - a cycle and walkway which runs alongside the River Taff and eventually ends up at Brecon 55 miles away. As soon as we joined the route (in the centre of Cardiff) it was as though we were in the middle of the countryside well away from any built up area. The route was excellent and more or less flat to begin with. After a few miles we reached Tongwynlais and had to climb a hill to get to Castle Coch and to make use of of the tea room there. The lemon dripping cake was excellent! The castle is a modern construction, but this was built on the remains of a 13th century castle which Gilbert de Clare is thought to have been involved in.
Our final castle was to be Caerphilly - this must surely be one of the finest of southern Wales sitting surrounded by water and it is the second largest in Britain (only Windsor is larger). We arrived at 4.30pm with only half an hour left for visiting so we decided to postpone our in-depth visit to first thing the next day.
The mileage at the end of the day was 47.1 miles.
Castles visited - 5