The Caerphilly Mountain walk is one of the great walks near Cardiff to do. The town of Caerphilly is just a 15-minute drive from Cardiff City centre out towards the mountains. Once you’re there you feel far away from the city with pretty much rolling countryside surrounding you and a view of Cardiff Bay in the distance.
The other reason walking up Caerphilly Mountain is a good walk is because when walking up to it, it’ss not quite a mountain, it’s more of a big hill, and therefore it is an easy walk and accessible for most people.
Caerphilly Mountain
In this Cardiff blog post, I’m going to tell you how to do the Caerphilly Mountain walk and give you some information on Caerphilly Mountain parking and the Caerphilly Mountain cafe which is pretty famous!
Plus, how long it takes to climb Caerphilly Mountain because you can climb it in 10 minutes (yes, really!) or you can do a longer circular walk around Caerphilly Mountain which takes about 1 hour and makes the trip much more worthwhile.
How to get to Caerphilly Mountain
When driving from Cardiff City Centre to Caerphilly, Caerphilly Mountain is just before you reach the town of Caerphilly and the turning is off of the A469 up B4263 also called Mountain Road.
Caerphilly Mountain is also accessible via train as Caerphilly train station is 1 mile and a 20 minute walk straight along B4263 / Mountain Road.
If you want to get the bus there are many bus stations in Caerphilly and you can use the Cardiff Bus website to work out the closest bus station to Caerphilly Mountain.
Caerphilly Mountain Parking
The car park for Caerphilly Mountain is at Caerphilly Mountain Snack Bar which is located on Google Maps.
There is a fairly good-sized car park next to Caerphilly Mountain cafe and there is a bit of space on the grass nearby for extra parking which is where we parked as it was so busy on a Saturday afternoon!
The car park is free and the address for Caerphilly Mountain car park is: Mountain Road, Caerphilly, CF83 1JA.
Related Post: View all my top things to do in Cardiff here!
Caerphilly Mountain Walk
From Caerphilly Mountain snack bar and car park you across the road and head up the only visible footpath and past the welcome sign.
If you want to get to the top of Caerphilly Mountain and back down quickly then continue walking straight and take the turning on the right up the hill when you see it. This path will take you all the way to the top and the walk is just a few minutes from where you take this right turn.
Therefore, you can get to Caerphilly Mountain and back in just 15-20 minutes if you’re in a rush.
Although you won’t be walking for long, the countryside views throughout the short walk are lovely and you’ll still see a lot, and get a bit of a sweat on!
If you have a bit longer, you can do the Caerphilly Mountain Circular Walk which is what I did and I’ll explain below.
Here is a Caerphilly Mountain Map to help understand the Caerphilly Mountain walking routes:
- For more of my Cardiff Posts and places near Cardiff see:
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Caerphilly Mountain Circular Walk
Once you cross the road from Caerphilly Mountain snack bar, to do the circular walk you can go left or right. I decided to go left and do this walk clockwise which I’ll go through now.
The start of the walk is very easy, it is fairly flat with a small incline to start with but the countryside views are all around and to the left is a view of Cardiff Bay.
After the path splits in two where you can walk up the hill to the top straight away or continue straight to do the full circular walk the path starts to decline and heads towards the road. I thought we were going in the wrong direction but we were not.
The path takes a sharp right at the road and we noticed a memorial just off the path which was a nice thing to stop at.
From here the footpaths continues up and down throughout the trees, although it is still not strenuous. A view of Caerphilly town comes into view which you walk alongside around the back of the mountain. Keep a lookout for Caerphilly Castle at the bottom too!
Before you know it you’ll be able to see Caerphilly Mountain snack bar as you will be back at the starting point of the walk.
From here you can retrace your steps but instead turn right up the hill to the summit of Caerphilly Mountain!
Because this is a very easy walk we decided to walk the smaller circular route near the top of the mountain too which gave all the same views, just at a different angle.
For a longer Caerphilly Mountain Circular Walk, you can make a full 10km walk out of it by heading over to another nearby mountain like in this Caerphilly Walk Map:
How high is Caerphilly Mountain?
Caerphilly Mountain summit is 271 metres (889 ft) above sea-level.
How long is the Caerphilly Mountain walk?
I was out of the car for just less than 1 hour to do all of this, although I do walk quite fast and we didn’t stop for that long at the top.
I’d say 1 hour is a good amount of time to spend doing the full Caerphilly Mountain walk, however if you want to just climb the summit of Caerphilly Mountain and that’s it, you can do it in 5-10 minutes each way.
How hard is the Caerphilly Mountain walk?
The walk that I have given you here really isn’t hard at all.
In fact, if you are a keen hiker and walker, you will be disappointed by it.
However, if you are happy to have an easy walk in the middle of the countryside with the excitement of a summit, especially if you have children or want a decent dog walk, then it is a good walk to do.
If you are looking for a more challenging walk, there is another Caerphilly Mountain Circular Walk which is 10km. It starts and ends from another place but passes through the summit of Caerphilly mountain. Read about it on AllTrails here!
Caerphilly Mountain Snack Bar
There was a fairly big queue when I visited Caerphilly Mountain, one reason was probably because all of the queuing is outside due to the pandemic, however the Caerphilly Mountain snack bar is also a pretty well known and famous place!
It was established in 1957 making it the oldest independent snack bar left operating in the UK and is a landmark here at the top of Caerphilly.
It’s known as the ‘shack’ on top of Caerphilly Mountain because it pretty much started this way. These days it sells a range of food with locally sourced ingredients at a high quality and customers return again and again, which explains why the queue was so long when I went.
You should expect a queue too if you visit on weekends and public holidays but it’s worth it.
Visit their website here to see their menu and read more about the snack bar.
Things To Do in Caerphilly
Because the Caerphilly Mountain walk does not take too long, whilst you are in Caerphilly it would be a shame to miss out on Caerphilly Castle which is another one of the top things to do in Caerphilly.
The construction of the Castle started in 1268 as Wales Biggest Castle and second only to Windsor Castle in the UK.
Visit Caerphilly Castle website here for more info and tickets.
As for pubs near Caerphilly Castle, The Travellers Rest is the closest pub and a vert popular place for food and drink. Opposite are the ruins of Morgraig Castle for more things to do in Caerphilly.
Caerphilly Town also has a number of pubs, restaurants and shops.
I hope this helps you to do Caerphilly Mountain Walk!
- For more of my Wales posts see:
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