Caerleon Roman Fortress and Baths

The fortress site is in the open air. I was impressed by the size of the fortress site. If you go to the National Roman Legion Museum you will see a mock up of an eight bedded room and kit room, which helps to make sense of the barracks site. There is open access to the site. The baths museum site is entered through the public park. The site is run by CADW and has a small charge. There are walkways above the remains of the baths which give you a good view. The lighting has been done very well.

Largely off the traditional lists of Roman sites this town goes under the historical radar. Recommended via a TV travel programme, we visited whilst passing on the nearby M4. The Roman Baths are a superb presentation of Roman remains/excavation, with audio visual effects providing fascinating insights into Roman Life, even if the accents are a little 'OTT'.
Your visit takes you on a short walk around the town, seeing the baths, museum, amphitheatre, wall and barracks in quick succession.
Note that English Heritage members are offered free entry to the Baths, and all other parts of the Roman Heritage are free to all visitors.
There is plenty of free parking around the town but the car park at the Baths is charged - free if you are using the pub who own the car park.
More information boards at the amphitheatre, and the barracks would be helpful.

Visited the Roman Baths this had been my second visit. The Roman Baths is a must if your in the area. The interpretation and the visual interacrtive effects are next to none. Tellimg you Caerleons stort. Youll see the remains of the Bath House the warming rooms etc. This under cover and ideal on a wet day. Very nice Cadw staff welcome yoiu to the site and very helpful. There is a small shop selling books small gifts and icecream.The remains of the Amphitheatre are a short walk away and free to enter. The Roman Legion musem near by is free if you have time, I suggest you park near the Amphitheatre as the car park by the baths is owned by the pub and charge you. 1hr sets you back £1.50.

Our sequence of visiting the different sites was our downfall. We visited the museum first , to understand the background. From there we went to the Amphitheater, but even though the visit was within 3 days of midsummer it had shut at 4 o’clock. Other locations were still accessible

Fascinating and amazing that this has been so well preserved after such a long time. Good information to tell you what you’re seeing. Well worth a visit for an hour or so. Combine with a visit to the museum 2 minutes’ walk away. There is a fee for the baths but the museum is free so the cost overall was very reasonable I thought. Enjoyed by the whole family

My friend and I are greatly interested in Ancient Rome and can recommend a visit to Caerleon. The Baths are situated in the centre of the town. we were very impressed with the sound effects and projections of swimmers in the pool. The artifacts on display are well laid out and explained in ways for all age groups to understand.

The Fortress is the only Roman Legionary Fortress on display in Europe. Despite only one corner of it being excavated and on show one can get a good idea of the size of the establishment from the surviving walls. One criticism I would make is that I would like to see a few more information boards so that one can interpret the ruins better. The only one we could find was explaining the ins and outs of the latrine. Something of a similar style expailning the barrack blocks would help.

There is a small pay and display car park alongside the Baths but if you park by the Fortress and Amphitheatre there is plenty of free parking.

The amphitheatre will not be open if it is raining. Or drizzling. Or not raining or drizzling right now, but has been sometime recently so the grass is a bit wet. They don't believe people are capable of walking safely on wet grass and might fall over - I asked them. The terrifying danger posed by Wet Grass happens often in Wales so they recommend checking the website before planning a trip, although even when the drizzle stopped hours ago they still keep it locked. I thought their objective was to make our heritage accessible, not shut people out? I'd travelled a long way to see this.

We are really glad we visited and spent time here but we also left thinking the visitor experience could be SO much better.
Why go? Well the Roman baths building is definitely worth into and exploring, and worth paying for. Absolutely fascinating. However from the outside it looks like a 1980s local authority building or library and it isn't clear that the building house an AMAZING piece of history. Why not great signs from the road or on the outside of the building that are in keeping with the surrounds but show of this jewel of a site?
Sadly ran out of time to visit the free museum but it looked good. We did however go down and explore the amphitheatre and the old barracks. Again, fascinating but why were there no information boards or interpretation boards showing off the amazing history of this site. The biggest negative to be honest of the amphitheatre was the rank smell of the cattle in the dairy farm right next door but you can't blame CADW for that and the wind direction on that day!
Overall, definitely worth visiting and a real piece of history.

We were restricted to the baths by the weather. Note the amphitheatre is currently closed due to the ground conditions. The baths and the associated displays are well worth a visit showing the scale and civilised nature of Roman society so very long ago. There is plenty of pay and display parking just outside of the museum. If in the area add it to your list. It is a Cadw property so members have free access and English Heritage members get a significant discount.

We stopped here having seen the brown sign on the motorway and was pleasantly surprised by the extent of the Roman ruins, be warned it was busy even though we were visiting in the middle of winter and we ended up parking by the football club and walking back to the town (worked out well as we stumbled on the legionnaires barracks and amphitheatre).
The barracks were wet under foot but the ruins were well preserved and extensive; it would of been nice if there was further boards to further explain what things were for the novice visitor.
The amphitheatre looked like it was well looked after and kept tidy although it wasn't possible to visit it unless you climbed the fence because the attraction was closed due to the ground being wet.
We didn't visit the museum as we hadn't pre-book tickets as this was an unplanned stop but it looked like a great place to learn of Caerleon's history.
The Baths were great; the area was displayed clearly and information was given at every point on the trip around; a few artefacts were displayed so you could see things like shoes and equipment that were used at the baths