Porthkerry Park is a large, public country park

Country park

A country park is an area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment.-History:In the United Kingdom the term 'Country Park' has a special meaning. There are over 400 Country Parks in England alone . Most Country Parks were designated in the 1970s, under the...

 on the coast of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan

Vale of Glamorgan

The Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in the southern part of Glamorgan, South Wales...

 in south Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. It has fields, extensive woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 and nature trails, cliff-top pathways, a pebble-stone beach

Beach

A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...

, and a small golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 course. Architecturally, it is noted for its prominent viaduct

Viaduct

A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...

 crossed by a railway that served as a transportation for coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 from the South Wales Valleys

South Wales Valleys

The South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...

 to the port in the 19th and 20th centuries. With the combination of green areas and the coastal location, the park is a popular destination for local primary schools taking their pupils on trips to study nature. The Egerton Grey Country House Hotel

Egerton Grey Country House Hotel

Egerton Grey Country House Hotel is an AA four star listed hotel located near the Bristol Channel in Porthkerry Park, Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. It is located near the viaduct and Cardiff International Airport, hidden away from the main park area. The house was originally built in...

 is also located in Porthkerry.

History

On the northern side of the park is the site of the old village at Cwmcidi (meaning Valley of the Black Dog), which came into existence before the middle of the 13th century. In 1622, Cwmcidi contained 5 houses bordering "Comkedye Street", interspersed with a number of tofts (dwelling sites) plus three scattered dwellings. By 1812, there remained only three cottages and a farmhouse. The cottages were finally swept away in the 1840s when the area was landscaped by the Romilly family to form Porthkerry Park. The name - although slightly anglicised

Anglicisation

Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...

 - lives on in the area, in the form of a nearby public house, The Cwm Ciddy.

Geography

Porthkerry Park lies on the Welsh coast, alongside the Bristol Channel

Bristol Channel

The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...

. Further up the shore, Barry Island

Barry Island

Barry Island may refer to:*Barry Island , Wales*Barry Island , Antarctica...

 is accessible via the pebble beach. On a clear day, it is possible to walk from Porthkerry to Cold Knap

Cold Knap

- Amenities :Cold Knap is a pebble beach on the coast that attracts visitors during the summer months. It is located a few miles west of the sandy beach of Barry Island. It was founded by the Romans who used it as a port...

(and vice versa) in a mere matter of minutes.

Maintenance

The park is maintained by two rangers,one of whom has a residence at a quaint, old cottage along the main park road.