Launching the Llandough guided tour

Part 1 · The Llandough walking loop (about 90 minutes with stories): stop 1 Tŷ Mawr site, Church View Close → stop 2 St Dochdwy's church and the Irbic Cross (0.18 km, 2-3 min) → stop 3 Roman villa site, south of the church (about 90 m in a straight line; the mapped path is longer) → stop 8 the village green → stop 9 back to Church View Close. Under 2 km in all.

Part 2 · The wider stops (by car or minibus, about 52 minutes of driving): Llandough → stop 4 Brynwell, Leckwith (2.9 km, 6 min) → stop 5 the Driscoll statue, Bute Street (about 10.7 km by the mapped route, an upper bound) → stop 6 Cardiff Bay waterfront (2.5 km, 4 min; or a 27-minute walk) → stop 7 Lavernock Point (10.2 km, 16 min) → back to Llandough (6.6 km, 13 min). About 33 km.

Method: OpenStreetMap places and the OSRM foot and car routers, free-flow times with no traffic or stop time (a minimum). The villa point is the national monuments record's 100 m grid square, so the exact spot is not checked. Timings will be replaced by the pilot walk's own.

• Buses to Llandough: the Llandough Hospital stops, about 0.5 km from the church, are served by routes 7, 95, 304 and 305; the Llandough Institute stop is about 180 m from the church (routes not checked).
• Buses to Lavernock: routes 88 and 94 stop on Fort Road, about 800 m from the nature reserve.
• Parking: two free public car parks in Llandough and one with 18 spaces; the church car park is for church users, so ask first. At Lavernock, limited parking by the gate and at the end of Fort Road.
• Access: Church View Close is a public street of private homes, viewed from the pavement. The churchyard needs the church's permission for groups. Nothing of the villa shows above ground; view from public land. Brynwell is private: view from the road. The Driscoll statue and the Bay are public spaces. The Marconi plaque at Lavernock is on the church by the car park, reachable without the cliff paths; the reserve has stiles and eroding cliff paths.
• Step-free: the Llandough core is short but on a hill; gradients and pavements are not checked and need a site walk.

Recommendation: one free scheduling page with two or three pilot dates, voucher holders invited first, payment through the links that already exist. Third-party marketplaces take 20-30% per booking, so direct booking comes first.

1. Walk the Llandough loop with phone GPS; photograph signage; confirm step-free sections and where the green is.
2. Written permission for group visits from the church and the green's owner (an Executive decision; nobody has been contacted).
3. A guide: a family guide or a qualified tour guide (the guides' association's 2026 half-day fee is £208), and public liability cover (Executive decision).
4. Audio for all nine stops in English and Welsh, so the tour also works self-guided.
5. Pilot walk with 8-12 guests; ask each for a written review; time every leg.
6. Then a fixed public schedule: at least two walks a month in season. Benchmark: £15-18 per person for a two-hour public walk, about 14 guests per walk.

A shortlist of incorporated companies has been checked against the companies register: Cardiff Bay boat operators (a Marconi-by-water ticket), a Cardiff walking-tour social enterprise, two Welsh augmented-reality studios with museum work, and Penarth hospitality and booksellers. Companies are named here only once they agree to work together. Pitches are drafted and held for the Executive's approval.

• Visit Wales product database: free listing; activity providers may need the adventure-activity assurance scheme.
• Travel Trade Wales: requires trade (commission or net) rates.
• Google business profile for the tour: free, as a service-area business.
• Tripadvisor: free listing (terms not checked).
• Marketplaces (experience platforms): about 20-30% commission; use last.

Opening any new public channel is an Executive decision.

See objective O1 for milestones, next actions, blockers and the weekly score. Companion book: The Llandough Tour Companion (draft).

OpenStreetMap and the OSRM routers; the national monuments record entry for the Llandough Roman villa (excavated 1979); bus operators' stop listings; the Wildlife Trust's Lavernock Point reserve page and the Wales Coast Path itinerary; the companies register; the scheduling, payment and ticketing providers' own pricing pages; the Wales Official Tourist Guide Association 2026 fees; Visit Wales industry pages. The full list with addresses is kept in the programme office's research file.