Thursday 9 October: tours

Departing from National Museum Cardiff, this coach trip takes you on a visit to the Big Pit National Coal Museum in Blaenavon – a working coal mine from 1880 to 1980. Discover Wales’ rich mining heritage in the award-winning interactive museum, set in the Blaenafon Industrial Landscape and designated Unesco World Heritage Site.

The visit includes the museum’s famous real underground experience, where you will be taken 300 feet underground with a guide to see what life was like for the thousands of men who worked at the coal face.

Meeting point: National Museum Cardiff 

Please arrive by 0945 to ensure a prompt departure at 1000. 

The museum and underground tour are accessible to wheelchair users, however Big Pit is a former working coal mine and offers some accessibility challenges to visitors with limited mobility and wheelchair users, including steep slopes and uneven ground. Please notify us in advance if you have access needs.  

Light refreshments will be provided on this tour.  

Limited to 50 places.

Advance booking is essential for this tour. A booking link has been emailed to delegates.

Amgueddfa Cymru holds around three million botany, geology and zoology specimens, the most comprehensive collection of Welsh specimens in the world. They provide a unique record of the natural history of Wales, charting evolutionary and environmental change from deep time to the present day.  

The collections are international in scope, with everything from Jurassic dinosaurs to meteorites from Mars, an enormous trumpet shell, 300-year-old herbarium sheets, an extinct thylacine, and drawers of beautiful butterflies. Here you will get a taste of the treasures in the museum’s natural history collections.

The tour is accessible to wheelchair users.

Limited to 10 places.

Advance booking is essential for this tour. A booking link has been emailed to delegates.

Join some of the museum’s art and archaeology conservators behind the scenes at Amgueddfa Cenedlaethol Caerdydd. Learn about the techniques and equipment the museum uses to care for its collections and see what they have on their benches this week. All labs/studios are accessible by lift if required, but note that these are working areas with some narrow spaces where group members will need to be in close proximity to each other.

The tour is accessible to wheelchair users.

Limited to 8 places.

Advance booking is essential for this tour. A booking link has been emailed to delegates.

A walking tour of Cardiff organised by the Wallich, Wales’ leading homelessness charity.

The tour explores prominent public buildings and memorial statues plus some lesser-known urban fragments to discover some of the key historical episodes and social actors in the formation of the global Coal Metropolis. Waymarks include traces of the medieval walled town, fragments of industrial archaeology and maritime Cardiff, and the gothic splendour of the Church of St John the Baptist.

The climax of the tour is the architectural triumph of Cathays Park, which was the first planned civic centre in the United Kingdom and an inspiration for the American City Beautiful movement. The tour ends at the allegorical sculpture of Minerva, featuring the labour of the coal miner as an emblem of the South Wales Coalfield and the source of Cardiff’s wealth as a port and city.

The Wallich invests tour revenue in providing support for its tour guides, who have all been affected by homelessness.

Meeting place: The Statue of the Second Marquess of Bute, Callaghan Square CF10 1BT (behind Cardiff Central Railway Station). See the exact location via what3words: ///lived.debate.acid. Please be aware that there is construction taking place next to the meeting point, look out for the tour guides wearing purple t-shirts.

The tour is accessible to wheelchair users.

Limited to 20 places – first come, first served.

Visit the Museum of Cardiff for a guided tour of the Grade II* Old Library building. Find out about the origins of the building; discover the tiled corridor – a hidden gem in Cardiff’s city centre; hear how the history of Cardiff is told through the voices of those who have lived and worked in the city; and see community exhibitions by Grange Pavilion Young Curators and Cardiff Astronomical Society.

The tour is accessible to wheelchair users.

Limited to 20 places – first come, first served.

Join the museum team for a guided tour of two exciting Amguedda Cymru exhibitions at National Museum Cardiff.

Picture Post revolutionised the way Britain understood itself. This groundbreaking photo-magazine captured everyday life, major events and shifting social attitudes. This exhibition brings Picture Post to life through striking photography, revealing Britain’s transformation from the 1930s to the 1950s. Explore with the museum’s senior curator of photography, Browen Colquhoun and Tom Allbeson (co-curator).

Hip Hop: A Welsh Story is a dynamic exhibition that celebrates the evolution of the genre and artform in Wales. Explore with curator, DJ and hip hop enthusiast Kaptin Barrett.

The tour is accessible to wheelchair users. 

Limited to 20 places – first come, first served.

The library at Amgueddfa Cymru supports the research and learning needs of the museum’s staff, visitors and wider community. Its collections reflect the diverse nature of Amgueddfa Cymru’s work and are particularly strong in the areas of archaeology, natural sciences, art and Welsh cultural history.

The main library at National Museum Cardiff is housed in the oldest part of the building, above the main hall. Come along to see this beautiful space and some of the treasures from the rare book collections. Lift access is available for this tour – please contact the museum if you have any issues with heights as an alternative entrance is available.

The tour is accessible to wheelchair users.

Limited to 20 places – first come, first served.

Chapter is an inter­na­tional centre for con­tem­porary arts and culture, rooted in the heart of Cardiff. It was nominated for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025 award.  

Meet artistic director Hannah Firth and curator Sim Panaser for an introduction to Chapter and its current installation by artist Sophie Mak-Schram: To Shift a Stone. Across 2023 to 2025, Sophie explored how power is experienced, shared and challenged within Chapter and Amgueddfa Cymru as part of a Perspectives, a Wales-wide programme initiated by Arts Council Wales and seven venues across Amgueddfa Cymru.

Working with activists, community workers, artists and staff, Sophie developed collaborative ‘tools’ that challenge and reimagine power structures. These tools range from access templates and new working processes to modified megaphones and ceramic pieces, creating opportunities for shared learning and more equitable collaboration.

The resulting two-part exhibition, To Shift a Stone, focuses on categorisations (National Museum Cardiff) and forms of assembling (Chapter). At Chapter, Sophie will be installing tools across the café to consider the different ways that those using the space might have more agency in shaping it.

These tools will also provide moments to learn together or collaborate more equitably. Sophie will also be presenting a new artwork for Chapter’s billboard, greeting visitors as they arrive at the building.

The tour is accessible to wheelchair users.

Limited to 20 places – first come, first served.