Visiting Old Beaupre Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan

*Update when we visited this Cadw site a few weeks ago, it was open to the public although as it's a free and unmanned site they have decided to close it due to Covid 19 - this situation is constantly changing so please do check the Cadw website before heading out. There are not many castles and medieval ruins locally to us that we haven't visited although recently I was going through all the Cadw heritage sites online and realised we hadn't visited Old Beaupre Castle - a lesser know about ruined medieval fortified manor house near Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan. After I came across it online I did some research and came across a few sparse online reviews and discovered it was a bit off the beaten track and quite hard to find and awkward to get too, but we always love a challenge, and despite the Cadw directions being somewhat unclear we did manage to find it. Once we arrived as close to the Satnav postcode as possible we could see an old farm track which clea......

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Beyond the Border Festival, St Donats

Beyond the Border is a Storytelling festival that happens every two years at St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan and is a fantastic festival for families and those wanting something a little bit more slower paced than some of the more action-packed ones during the summer, this isn't to say there's not plenty going on because there is but equally its easy to just sit back and take it slow. This was actually the second year we have attended BTB Festival having worked with them in 2014. This time I wasn't there to review, in fact we bought our tickets the evening before as a last minute thing as we knew the weather was going to be good and we had so much fun last time it felt like a great way to spend a weekend, especially as it's only 45mins from where we live.  Beyond the Border has taken many shapes over the years, I'm not sure if this is down to funding or organisation but this year was technically the "25th Birthday Barnstormer" and wa......

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Dyffryn Gardens - Spring at The National Trust

If you are a regular reader of our blog you will know we love spending as much time outdoors as possible and have been meaning to visit one of two National Trust properties local to us, one being Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan, which we had heard was a fantastic place to explore, with a variety of gardens, sculptures and an imposing Manor house. So when the wonderful people at The National Trust invited us to a spring adventure we couldn't wait to put our boots on and get outside, especially now that baby G is running around, climbing over things and enjoying the fresh air as much as we are. We headed down to the gardens on what happened to be the warmest day of the year so far and it really felt like spring had arrived, especially with the sight of spring buds and daffodils in full bloom. There are plenty of parking spaces  at Dyffryn and just before the entrance is a fun little adventure playground which both of the kids loved, as well as the main ca......

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Walston Castle family restaurant review

We were recently invited to review the newly refurbished Walston Castle Beefeater in Wenvoe, a nice little spot in the Vale of Glamorgan. Having never been to a Beefeater before we were unsure of what to expect and wether they would have something to meet everyones needs and tastes, but as always we approached this open minded. First of all there is plenty of parking which is useful especially if you have young children with you. The staff were friendly and took us to our seat straight away. The interior is simple and well designed, I love the large hanging lamps and wooden panelling everywhere. It was a little dim inside making it a bit difficult to take decent photos but that had nothing to do with the atmosphere which was nice and cosy and perfect for relaxing family time. The fun Mr Men inspired kids menu is also packed with activities which Mr A enjoyed doing while we waited for our food to arrive. I was pleasantly surprised with the healthy options in......

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Last of the summer strawberries

So about 3 weeks ago we decided to head to the Vale of Glamorgan and to the lovely Hendrewennol Farm where you can Pick your own fruit - it's been one of those places that was on our must visit list during the summer but actually going just after the schools went back was a great idea as we have the strawberry fields to ourselves. Mr A loved looking for the ripe read strawberries which are one of his favourite fruits ever (he couldn't resist a taste either). After a whole summer of people picking them there was not an abundance of fruit but we still managed to get a good amount and its such a lovely and simple pleasure to pick your own. The farm also has Wales largest Maze carved into a Corn crop. We were given a sheet of 10 castles to find in the maze and in each mini wooden castle was a stamp and you needed to get all ten stamps to received a little gift at the end. It was so much fun running around the maze with the little man, in the  sunshine, enjoying t......

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End of the summer daze

Enjoying my energy levels before I hit the third trimester So we made a little list of things we wanted to do over the summer. I had been to the Amelia Trust farm before with Mr A but we had not been as a family and thought the first week all the kids went back to school would be a perfect time to explore (pros of not having a child in school). So we headed out to this lovely community run farm in the Vale of Glamorgan There is a lovely array of farm animals as well as a great little nature inspired play park with an old tractor that Mr A would happily spend all day sitting on. They had some organic veggies on sale and we picked up a lovely little pumpkin after which we sat down at the little farm cafe for a coffee and homemade shortbread as well as picking up some fresh eggs for home. Our favourite part of the farm is the forest walk which eventually leads onto a wild pond filled with beautiful water-lillys. We spent a lot of time at the pond, just sitting and wa......

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Run to the sun

So if you don't live in the UK, let me paint a picture - Rain Rain Rain - for the last 3 weeks. Except on thursday, there was a break from the wet weather and though the sun didn't exactly shine it was dry. So as soon as we woke, we got ready and made our way down to the Welsh coast in the Vale of Glamorgan. We finally visited the Plough and Harrow Pub in Monknash - one of the oldest pubs in Wales and it had that real old world feel to it. Since John is on holiday he decided to go for the sinful homemade Steak and Ale pie (if you can't do it on holiday when can you?) and you really could taste the Ale, I went for a very yummy ham and new potato salad. The pub also had a nice beer garden for Arthur to run around in. After lunch we went for a drive to Nash Point lighthouse and St Donats through to Llantwit Major and had a lovely relaxing walk on the beach and watched the surfers while Mr A proceeded to get very wet and sandy, best day so far in our British summer. Laura w......

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