Porthkerry Country Park is a large, public country park between the hamlet of Porthkerry and Barry town, in a valley accessible by car from the north-eastern end at the Garden Suburb area of Barry and via a road section locally known as Fishponds Hill. The western end used to be accessible to light vehicles from Rectory Hill, north-west of Porthkerry viaduct, via an unmetalled lane from the Rectory House at valley bottom (later Egerton Grey Country Guest house, opened in 1988 but closed in 2010) but later metalled as a cycle/pedestrian way to join the metalled road near Porthkerry railway viaduct and public car park. At the south-west end, a steep cliff pathway from the former Bulwarks site, east of Porthkerry Leisure Park area, leads down to Porthkerry beach skirting the
Bristol Channel. Other pathways exist, one from Porthkerry Church area adjacent to Porthkerry railway viaduct and the other at the north side of the beach via the famous "Golden Stairs" from the clifftop pathway from the Garden Suburb. Fields, extensive
woodland, nature trails and a pebble-stone
beach are included. A small
golf course has recently been converted to a ponded area with boardwalk alternative access from the car park/café area near the viaduct (April 2020), and is visited by around 250,000 people a year. The park was fully landscaped by the Romilly family in the 1840s, and they sold it to Barry Urban District Council in 1929. The park was occupied by British and American forces during World War II in the approach to
D-Day, and earthworks and defences were built along the coast. It became Grade II
listed in 1963. The former
Egerton Grey Country House Hotel stands near the viaduct. The house was originally built in the 17th century and functioned as a rectory for some time. On the northern side of Porthkerry Park there was a small hamlet named Cwmciddy (meaning Valley of the Black Dog in Welsh). It first appeared in the mid 13th century and by 1622 had five houses and several farm buildings, but by 1812, only three cottages and a farmhouse remained. The cottages were demolished in the 1840s by the Romilly family when Porthkerry Park was landscaped. Cwm Barry Cottage was built in around 1845 to house the park ranger but was demolished in 1972; all that remained was a low boundary wall and fruit trees in the woodland which were once part of the cottage garden but no evidence of this now exists. A mill race used to tee in with Barry Brook just north of that cottage and fed the former wood mill in Mill Wood. The mill was driven by an overshot mill wheel which was also fed from a millpond and dam and race placed upstream in the Nant Talwg brook. On an unknown date after the mill became redundant, the dam was dynamited, the bulk of which can be seen from the Mill Wood bridleway, as a concrete mass lying on its side. The country park is now managed by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, and a Ranger's office and maintenance vehicle site is located at Nightingale Cottage halfway into the park. ==Notable people==