St Fagans is a village close to, and a suburb of, the City of Cardiff. At its centre lies St Fagans Castle and parklands, though today it is renowned as the home of the Wales National History Museum. Formerly known as the Welsh National Folk Museum.

We visited while en-route from Swansea to Cardiff and it's a great day out. But you probably need to allow a week ! Our journey took us along the M4 and the Museum was clearly signposted, with just a few miles to drive after exiting the motorway at junction 33.

The modern museum building is of no architectural merit, but we couldn't complain as it is entirely free to enter, and the museum treasures are not to be found in the main Museum but in the parklands at the rear. From typical shepherds' cottages on the Welsh hills, miners' terraced houses from the valleys, victorian streets complete with village school and blacksmith, they are all here in a delightful rural setting.

Parking the car was no problem, again free, and there was plenty of parking space. We chose to skip the tour of the main Museum and walked straight through the Museum building to the "country lane" leading toward the exhibits.

A short stroll and we came across fantastic examples of old Welsh homes. Complete with smoky coal and wood fires, and furniture to match the properties. Houses that had been completely dismantled, brick by brick, or stone by stone, and transported from their natural settings, in some cases hundreds of miles, to be rebuilt here in St Fagans.

Each property is occupied by a member of the museum's staff and they are happy to answer all your questions and explain the original construction techniques. Their is a friendly blacksmith at work, a potter, a baker, and probably a candlestick maker. If you are feeling peckish you may buy the fresh bread that has been baked in the traditional ways. We visited some fantastic stone and wood framed buildings, the Old Barn from Llanrwst and the Manor House from Radnor. As we ourselves are renovating an 18th century stone cottage in Snowdonia it was helpful to visit a rebuilt 18th century stone cottage from Snowdonia !

I suppose there are questions to be asked about the very idea of dismantling the properties and moving them away from their natural location, but, as I understand it, they are only considered for the Museum if they would be at risk should they be left on their original site.

This is evidenced by the ancient church that has been completely rebuilt on the site. It has taken several years and the project is still ongoing, but they are doing a marvelous job, and I don't think even the most cynical amongst us would be justified in criticising the Museum for their efforts.

After a couple of hours we returned to the main building and enjoyed a tasty bowl of soup and a cup of tea. Feeling refreshed we set out on part two of our visit .....to see "how the other half lived". St Fagans Castle and parklands are the original estate, and these too are open to the public. The Castle is a grand building and demonstrates both the "upstairs" and "downstairs" lifestyles, with furniture and fittings displayed as if the occupants had recently abandoned the home. "Upstairs" consisted of beautiful furniture and tapestries, while "downstairs" consisted of all the paraphernalia and equipment needed to keep "upstairs" in the manner to which they were accustomed.

The formal gardens and lakes were as beautiful as the house and are well worth a visit in their own right.

In fact whether you are Welsh or a visitor to Wales I can highly recommend St Fagans as being "cheap at half the price", and have to commend the Welsh Assembly for their policy in allowing free access to Museums.

Unfortunately we could only manage a half day visit but there is enough at St Fagans to occupy visitors or family groups for several days.

TIP ! It might be worth considering the school holidays when choosing the date of your visit. St Fagans being such an excellent educational tool attracts school chidren by the coach load. But saying that, the day we visited, although there were several coaches of school children, we did not feel it to be over crowded as the site is so big.

We continued on our journey to Cardiff.

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