Adventures around Newportwith PlusBus
With coastal wetlands, forests and canals in easy reach, Newport in South Wales is surprisingly green. It may sometimes struggle to compete with nearby Cardiff and Bristol in terms of tourist reputation, but has its own treasures: museums and markets, bridges and bars, the grounds of stately Tredegar House and Victorian parks like Belle Vue. A short bus ride north brings you to Roman Caerleon, home to the second Augustan legion for two centuries. And, heading eastwards out the city, you can soon be striding through wooded hills with views of the Severn. Here the landscape is peppered with ancient monuments and wild flowers. You can reach all these places with a PlusBus ticket for a very small extra fee on top of your train fare. Read on to find out more.
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1. Tredegar House
When you’re buying a train ticket for Newport, add PlusBus for a very small extra fee and you can travel anywhere around the area by bus for the whole day. This includes the fabulous Roman remains at Caerleon (see 2 below) and the lovely parkland around Tredegar. This green oasis is a magnet for Newport families and dog walkers. In May, the orchard blossoms and the lavender buds while sunshine sparkles on the lake and dapples the winding paths. Tredegar House has a great community feel to it: volunteers plant colourful borders and grow veg in the allotment and the big park is free to visit.
- The house and gardens are well worth a visit too with towering redwoods, elaborate wood carving and a kitchen full of copper pots and pans. The house has been filmed dozens of times, becoming a military base for the film Journey’s End (2017) and showing up repeatedly in Doctor Who.
- So how do I get to Tredegar by bus? From Newport’s railway station, head for the historic market (Europe’s biggest indoor market regeneration project and a great place to pick up a picnic). From here, follow signs down the road to Friars Walk bus station and hop on bus 35 or bus 36 to Nightingale Close. When you get there, walk a few steps back to the crossing and follow the blue sign to Tredegar House.
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2. Caerleon
The Romans built a huge fort at Caerleon, just a couple of miles north of what is now Newport, in AD 75. The ruins were once so impressive that Geoffrey of Monmouth’s fanciful twelfth-century History insists that this town was King Arthur’s legendary court. Several centuries later, Alfred Lord Tennyson sat in the pub here and began to write his cycle of Arthurian poems, Idylls of the King.
- The atmosphere of the Roman baths original is recreated in a an immersive museum with lighting that replicates water and a soundtrack of singing and splashing. You can get two tickets for the price of one at Caerleon’s Roman baths when you show your train tickets.
- Nearby, there’s a Roman Legion Museum that explores life in one of Roman Britain’s three permanent fortresses. It contains fascinating gems like a thief-cursing inscription on lead, unearthed in the amphitheatre.
- There’s also an impressive ruined amphitheatre round the corner and the Ffwrwm courtyard full of Arthurian sculptures. Cross the River Usk and, near the old Bell Inn on Isca Road, you’ll find a wooden King Arthur is pulling his sword from a stone.
- How do I get to Caerleon by bus? Bus 27 and bus 29 and bus 29A all leave from stand 9 in Newport’s Friars Walk bus station and run to Caerleon. The bus stops outside the white-washed Hanbury Arms, which overlooks a shallow bend in the Usk.
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3. Hillforts and bluebell woods
For some steep climbs with fantastic views across rolling countryside, catch the bus to the village of Langstone and head for the hills. The rolling landscape near Newport is full of surprises. Iron age forts are hidden in ancient flowering woods while the big panoramas take in scattered islands and the Somerset coast.
- For energetic hikers, this epic 9-mile circuit through the wooded hills near the village of Langstone is well worth the effort. It passes castles and carpets of springtime bluebells, kicking off from the Ford Farm bus stop.
- So how do I get to the Ford Farm bus stop? Buses 74C and 74A run there from Stand 13 at Friars Walk bus station in Newport. The Old Barn pub and restaurant is one more stop on the bus or ten minutes’ walk along the B4245 in the village of Llanmartin, which is also covered by the PlusBus pass.
- If you’re not up for the full 9-mile hike, get hourly bus 73 instead to the stop called Caerlicyn/Caerlicken Lane and climb this winding country road. It’s about a mile to the top, where you’ll find a choice of paths and tracks through woods and fields. Wild daffodils flower in March across this area and there are vistas across green farmland to the wide water beyond.
- For more car-free adventures in this area, see our guide to South Wales.
