Tuesday 13 September 2016

Bute Park ~ Pontcanna Fields - A Toddler Explores

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We are very lucky living in Cardiff we have so many green spaces that are open to the public and have a variety of landscapes.

Bute Park is a stretch of parkland from Cardiff Castle in the city centre out towards Llandaff. The Taff Trail cycle route and the River Taff run through it.


On the West side of the river are football fields, a touring caravan site, Bike Hire, Sophia Gardens and the Glamorgan Cricket Ground. On the East side are Blackweir cricket pitches, cafes, the arboretum, herbaceous borders, fitness and sculpture trails.

We like to park at the Pontcanna Fields Car Park, (we still call it the Electricity Club). This use to be a free car park but is now a pay and display (oops, I didn't know until I was writing this up!) It is free for the first two hours, up to three hours cost £1 and over three hours costs £3.

The paths in the park are buggy, bike and wheelchair friendly. Our walk was about 4 kilometres or 2.5 miles. That is without any running back and forth or climbing! So take a walk with us around Bute Park.



The map above traces our route through the park. Most of the route is totally traffic free. Just the car park and a small section past the caravan site (11) have traffic.

You can interact with the map and the numbered markers pinpoint very roughly where the photo's below were taken.

1.
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Street art on the changing rooms at the start of our walk
2.
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More street art on the side of the changing rooms
Bute-Park-Pontcanna-fields-a-toddler-on-his-bike-
Bear on his bike on the traffic free road alongside the changing rooms

3.
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The beautiful Pontcanna Fields. Football pitches to our right and the River Taff ahead of us.

4.
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The bouncy bridge across the Taff. There is a weir here that children, (but not Bear!) love to play in.

5.
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On the Taff Trail Cycle Route heading south. It does get a bit busy with people cycling though
6.
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The view over Blackweir fields and the cricket pitches

toddler-looking-in-hole-in-tree-stump
A log with a hole. "What are you looking for? I ask "Squirrels" Bear tells me. Of course!
7.
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A tree stump carved with animals, part of  the sculpture trail

toddler-pointing-at-fox-tree-sculpture


owl-carved-from-stump-of-tree

8.
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Lots of wild flowers in the grass then just a little further for a well earned rest.
9.
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A well earned ice-cream. It was a really hot day.
10.
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Back across the Taff via the Millenium Bridge
11.
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The long ride back to the car. This road is shared with traffic going to the caravan site and the bike hire so although it is restricted to 5 miles an hour take care.
We really love this park. When we first lived in Cardiff we lived in the Castle Mews (number 12 on the map) which is in Bute Park just behind the Castle and so we know this park well. The Castle Mews are now part of the College of Music and Drama.

We must take Bear to explore more of Bute Park.

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