Cardiff Bay to Barry Island Trail Review

Begun the day with a Wetherspoons breakfast at the Mount Stewart. This is highly recommended when visiting Cardiff Bay for the view over the upstairs balcony.

With a full English breakfast to fuel us, we began the walk, walking past the Senedd and onto the Cardiff Bay barrage.

The first incline of the walk can be found at the end of the barrage. You have two options, at the Old Custom House roundabout, you can walk up the hill on the first exit, or you can walk straight on until you reach a footpath further on by Terra Nova way. We chose the first option and stopped for brief rest at the top of the hill for this picture of Cardiff from Penarth.

We then continued through Penarth Town Centre, stopping at the Windsor arcade to look around the independent shops.

After our brief stop, we continued to walk down Windsor terrace, through Alexandra Park to Penarth Pier.

I would recommend taking your first break in Penarth Pier. The front has many cafes, chip shops and coffee shops. All of which I have tried before and really enjoyed. We stopped at Coffi-Co, took a break on Penarth beach and watched the rowing races from the shore.

This walk appears to be easy up to this point. This is all about to change.

Walking up the pier and along the coastal path will take you to Lavernock. In summer this path can be very overgrown to be prepared to have to fight your way through some bushes.

At Lavernock this is the first point that the Welsh coastal path signs become important. The path briefly takes you inland. The trail starts to become difficult if there has been bad weather in the past few days.

You will approach the site of the Lavernock Battery. This is the site of a former anti-aircraft battery during WW2. Today it is equipped with (spooky) unused bunkers and concrete structures and beautiful views of Penarth beach.

Progress may be slow from here. The terrain starts to become very muddy and hard to wade through if the ground is soft.

The combination of fighting mud and inclines has depleted the energy levels. We made it to Swanbridge, muddy and feeling in need of a break. Luckily for us The Captain's Wife was here, it also advertises itself as being welcome to muddy shoes. They do serve food. If we were to do this walk again, we'd consider having some. Even though it seems close there is an awful lot of walking to do still. At this point the best of the walk is in the past. From here the walk gets a lot less scenic and pleasant. This could be a good place to end the walk and catch the bus back to Penarth then train to Cardiff.

The final push into Barry. Takes you along the beach path in Sully. Then you will be forced to leave the coast due to Barry docks. You will head towards the A4055. This route includes some high-speed traffic and in our opinion was very unpleasant to walk next to. The food options on route, there is a McDonald's or a Greggs. On the plus side you are only roughly 7km from the end of the walk.

When you see the famous Barry Docks, you know you are getting close to the Island.

Arrived at Marco's café in Barry Island. Muddy, tired and hungry.

After stopping for a sit down on the pier we decided it was time to get home, wash and have some food. To get back to Cardiff Bay or Centre is very simple, just hop on the train at Cardiff Bay. They run very regular so you shouldn't be waiting for long.