The resort is located near
Hensol Castle, in the Vale of Glamorgan, around 10 miles outside
Cardiff city centre.
Leekes, a retailer owned by Gerald Leeke, purchased the site, which at the time consisted of a 9-hole golf course, in 1994. Around this course, a golf clubhouse was opened, followed by a health club and spa facility in 1998, designed for 4,500 members. As of 2012, the spa is the largest in Wales. along with an indoor sports training arena, in a partnership with the
Welsh Rugby Union (WRU). The WRU continue to use the facility as their training base during domestic fixture periods such as the
Six Nations Championship and
Autumn internationals, and in 2009 the training facilities were developed further and relaunched as the WRU National Centre of Excellence, which includes three full-size outdoor rugby pitches as well as the indoor pitch and two administration blocks, where the
national squad's backroom staff and the WRU's development and academy staff are based. The
Football Association of Wales also previously had its training base at the Vale Resort, and commissioned international standard practice football pitches which were built at the facility between 2005 and 2006. The facility was officially opened in 2009, by
FIFA president
Sepp Blatter. In 2011, at the request of then-Wales manager
Gary Speed, the FAW moved the national team's training base to Newport's
Celtic Manor Resort, resulting in a £15,000 compensation payout to the Vale Resort. The football facilities at the Vale continue to be used by
Cardiff City FC, who share the Vale Pavilion building as their training headquarters with the
Cardiff Blues regional rugby side. In 2011, the resort made sales of £12 million. ==Golf==