Adieu Cardiff...but one last stop on the way out of the Welsh capital would mean that I’d completed all the “must do’s” on my list – St Fagan’s Natural History Museum. For £3.50 this could be Cardiff’s best kept secret. Approximately 10 minutes outside of Cardiff and attached to the cute little village of St Fagan’s the Natural History Museum is a replica village of transplanted house types from throughout Wales. Painstakingly reconstructed ancient stone houses, old timber barns and the 16th century castle and manor house make this is a credible and interesting snapshot of Wales’ yesteryear. Unfortunately for us it was school holidays and as the Museum has no entry fee (just the £3.50 for parking and 30 pence for the map) the site was inundated with families escaping Cardiff and wanting a picnic in the beautiful spring sun. Undeterred by the throngs of families we set off across the fields and our first stop was the castle. St Fagan’s Castle was everything we wanted Cardiff Castle to be – room after room of life as is was back in the 16th and 17th centuries with fully furnished bedrooms laden with lush tapestries to the fascinating kitchen with its massive ovens. The other big highlight was a stunning reconstruction of an ancient Celtic village. This was a definite highlight of the trip so far. 
With St Fagan’s behind us it was my mission to a) get Mum and Dad ambling across some fields and b) to investigate the less visited ancient burial chambers of Tinkinswood and St Lythan’s (both of which are reportedly over 6000 years old). Winding down a single lane road bordered by massive green hedges (hello Midsummer territory) we stumbled across St Lythan’s. A quick stroll across the open field, which we later discovered was known as the Accursed Field, we were presented with the burial chamber sitting centrally on the field like a kind of ancient outhouse. St Lythan’s is the smaller of the two chambers but thought to be an ancient Druid altar where all sorts of dark mischief occurred. A short jaunt down the road and we were on another field and ambling toward the Tinkinswood burial chamber. This is the more impressive site with a massive 36 tonne capstone roofing the chamber. The chambers were buried for thousands of years before excavations in the early 1900’s uncovered these massive tombs from the early Bronze Age. Being the only visitors to the site that afternoon it was eerie and intimate experience – although it appears there’s a lot of night-time activity at the site (with the used tea candles sprinkled throughout the chamber evidence of the locals trying to resurrect Robert Pattinson).
Leaving the Accursed Fields behind us it was onto the small seaside town of Tenby in Wales’ west – a cute walled city and a popular destination for holidaying locals. Staying at the Giltar Hotel (www.giltar.co.uk), currently undergoing a major upgrade, we were housed in two of the refurbished rooms with Mum and Dad’s suite having incredible views of the bay. Tenby’s seascape is dominating by St Catherine’s Island (which can only be reached for exploration at low tide from the sands of Castle Beach) and my inner Famous Fiver was immediately alerted to its mysterious potential. Time and tide did not allow us a Julian, Dick and Anne moment but as a kid this would be a place that would have exploded my imagination with the ideas of pirate treasure, sea monsters and ghosts trapped in the sea mist.
After a good night’s sleep in our cute rooms and with another good B&B breakfast consumed (Dad’s loving the 3 course breakfast...Mum’s not loving Dad’s love of the 3 course breakfast) and we were farewelling Tenby all too early and making our way to Fishguard and the ferry to Ireland...Next Stop: Waterford and Cork, Ireland.
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