Things to do in Caerphilly

Cwmcarn Forest Drive and Visitor Centre in the Ebbw valley in Caerphilly County Borough provides one of the most popular outdoor recreation destinations in the South Wales valleys, combining a scenic seven-mile forest drive, mountain bike trails of national and international significance, waymarked walking trails and a visitor centre with café and facilities. The mountain bike trail network at Cwmcarn is one of the most celebrated in Wales, with technically demanding red and black grade trails on the forested hillsides that attract riders from across Britain and beyond. The forest drive provides access to viewpoints overlooking the Ebbw valley and the broader south Wales valleys landscape. The visitor centre hosts events and activities throughout the year and the surrounding conifer and mixed woodland supports a range of upland birds including red kite, peregrine and various forest species.

Ruperra Castle near Draethen in Caerphilly is the ruined remains of a striking early seventeenth-century semi-fortified house built in 1626 by Sir Thomas Morgan, occupying a prominent hilltop position in the forested landscape of the Gwent uplands. The castle is a remarkable example of transitional architecture between the defensive castle tradition and the more comfortable country houses of the early Stuart period, with four round towers at the corners of a rectangular block in a design consciously echoing the medieval castle form while providing more comfortable domestic accommodation. The ruin has been in a precarious condition for many years and has been at the centre of ongoing conservation campaigns. The wooded hilltop setting visible from several directions in the Vale of Gwent makes it one of the more striking castle ruins in southeast Wales, and its architectural interest as an early seventeenth-century house-castle of this form is considerable.