Nominated by Richard Dawson

Photo by Hannah Livesey-Ingham

Each nation’s capital should have a medieval stronghold towering over its ancient heart. Think Edinburgh Castle or the Tower of London. Cardiff is no exception. It has a medieval castle with crenulated battlements and vertigo. You can find it looking a bit lost at the far end of Cardiff Castle’s massive square enclosure.

Cardiff Castle itself? A reconstructed Victorian monstrosity. But this misses the point. Cardiff Castle has it all. Roman bits underground, a medieval bit and a Victorian fantasy world built by the 3rd Earl of Bute, a Scot, with massive wealth from Glamorgan coal.

The Earl of Bute had several other houses too, but it was in Cardiff that, with help from architect William Burges, he created a full-blown medieval idyll complete with 1860’s mod cons. Brave the obviously reconstructed battlements to the left of the entrance gate and you enter a charming, preposterous private mansion.

The guided tour lasts just under an hour and the guides are knowledgeable and entertaining, but the building itself speaks if you have an eye for detail and a magpie’s approach to decorative motifs. Much of Cardiff Castle is in fact very old and in situ, but this is a building crying out for re-use, and all the better for it. Capability Brown messed around with the landscaping. There is a regimental museum and armoury. The reception rooms make popular venue for weddings. And the medieval castle is great for a breathless climb and a view over the University district, one of the greener parts of the City of Cardiff. But it is the mansion within the castle walls that is the gem not to be missed. You simply will not find Victorian rooms anywhere else in Britain which are quite as remarkable as those at Cardiff Castle.