Visit Neath Places

Welcome to Visit Neath Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Neath

  

Neath Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Neath

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Neath history

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Roman fort

The town is located at a ford of the River Neath and its strategic situation is evident by a number of Celtic hill forts surrounding the town. The Romans recognised the area’s strategic importance and built an Auxiliary Fort on the river’s Western bank around 74 AD. Much of the site is on the grounds of Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive School.

Medieval period

The Welsh language name for Neath is Castell-nedd, referring to the Norman Neath Castle, which was visited by English kings Henry II, John and Edward I. The church of St Illtyd was built at this settlement and was enlarged in Norman times.

Industrial and modern Neath

Neath was a market town that expanded with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. Coal was mined extensively in the surrounding valleys and the construction of canals and railways made Neath a major transportation centre. Admiral Lord Nelson stayed at the Castle Hotel en route to Milford Haven when the fleet was at anchor there. Neath hosted the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1918, 1934 and 1994.

Neath etymology

The town’s name ultimately derives from “Nedd” the original Welsh name for the River Neath. A meaning of shining or brilliant has been suggested, as has a link to the older Indo-European root *-nedi (simply meaning river)

You can visit Neath places with Walkfo Neath to hear history at Neath’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Neath has 48 places to visit in our interactive Neath map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Neath, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Neath places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Neath & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 48 audio facts unique to Neath places in an interactive Neath map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Neath Places Map
48 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Neath historic spots	Neath tourist destinations	Neath plaques	Neath geographic features
Walkfo Neath tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Neath

  

Best Neath places to visit

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Neath has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Neath’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Neath’s information audio spots:

Neath Abbey television relay station The Neath Abbey television relay station is sited on a hill north of the town of Neath. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue television serving the parts of the town of Neath to its east with its vertically polarised signal, and the parts of the town to its northwest with its horizontally polarised signal. This is an unusual layout, chosen to avoid signal degradation from reflections off the cliffs to the north. The site consists of a 12 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on land which is itself about 80 m above sea level. The Neath Abbey transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva. Neath Abbey transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Kilvey Hill about 10 km to the southwest. When it came, the digital switchover process for Neath Abbey duplicated the timing at the parent station, with the first stage taking place on Wednesday 12 August 2009 and the second stage was completed on Wednesday 9 September 2009, with the Kilvey Hill transmitter-group becoming the first in Wales to complete digital switchover. After the switchover process, analogue channels had ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview digital TV services were radiated at an ERP of 10 W each.

Skewen Dram Road The Skewen Dram Road was a 3 miles (5 km) long mining railway near Skewen in Wales with a gauge of 2 feet 7+1/2 inches (800 mm).

West End F.C. West End Football Club is a football team, based in the Mayhill area of Swansea, Wales, Ardal Leagues South West, the third tier of the Welsh football pyramid.

Cadoxton-juxta-Neath Cadoxton is a village situated in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The village has 1,684 residents and is located in the Cadoxion ward. Cadoxon elected a Liberal Democrat representative in 2008 council elections.

Cefn Saeson Cefn Saeson is a mixed, English-medium comprehensive school in Neath, South Wales. The school serves 11 to 16-year-olds living in Cimla, Tonna, Tonmawr, Pontrhydyfen and parts of Neath. A new school was built in 2021 on the football field of the existing school.

Gnoll Country Park Gnoll Country Park is an early-18th-century landscaped garden covering over 100 acres (0.40 km) in the Vale of Neath, in Neath Port Talbot county borough in south Wales.

Efail Fach television relay station The Efail Fach television relay station was built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television. It consists of a 15 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on a hill which is itself about 160 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed to the east towards the Pelenna valley.

Craig Ty-Isaf Craig Ty-Isaf is a small hillfort in Baglan community, Neath Port Talbot, in South Wales. It is one of three hillforts on the area of hillside known as Mynydd y Gaer, and is within Briton Ferry Woods.

Cilfrew television relay station Cilfrew television relay station is sited on a hill south of the village of Tonna. It was originally built in 1981 as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television. It consists of a 30 m self-supporting lattice mast.

Visit Neath plaques