Ianto's Shrine — Attraction in Butetown

Cardiff offers a lot, for tourists, for travellers, photographers find a lot of good spots and there is enough food for every taste and a shop for every quirk out there. But it also offers quite some spaces for lovers of the series Doctor Who or Torchwood, a spin-off thereof.

Torchwood was shot in Cardiff and is a series still beloved by many. If you are not familiar with either Doctor Who, nor Torchwood – here is a brief summary: In Doctor Who an alien uses a time-machine to travel through space and time. Sometimes people join him on his travels it’s really lovely to see his many adventures.

Torchwood features Captain Jack Harkness, a character first introduced to Doctor Who. He now is the leader of the Cardiff Torchwood branch and together with his friends and comrades tries his best to save the earth from all the supernatural powers trying to run amok.

Cardiff Bay is the spot where most Torchwood Fans will gather. Because underneath their feet the Torchwood team had their secret base and visitors will sometimes see people standing on one particular stone, as this was the top of the lift leading down.

But apart from the actual filming location, there is one spot in the Bay dedicated to one of the series’ characters – Ianto Jones. Here in the bay a memorial wall was set up and up until today people go there and put up their art, their wishes for Torchwood to return or even...

My daughter and I had taken a once in a lifetime trip to Cardiff from Texas. Myself being a lifelong Doctor Who fan and my daughter becoming a fan when it was rebooted with Eccleston, the trip was a no brainer. Being a Who fan, I was also a HUGE fan of the Torchwood series. Ianto was portrayed by the talented actor Gareth David-Lloyd. So naturally we had to stop by and visit the shrine honoring the fallen character Ianto Jones on Torchwood and a couple appearances on Doctor Who. It was put up at Mermaid Quay at one of the entrances to Torchwood. At the shrine, people could put up there own tributes of Ianto or the curator of the shrine would put some up. It was a very cool to visit as I had seen this location on almost every episode of Torchwood. Not to mention that even after you leave Ianto's Shrine, there are so many other things you can see in Mermaid Quay. When my daughter and I left the shrine, who did we run into? None other than the brilliant Russell T. Davies. He was so nice. I highly recommend visiting Ianto's Shrine. Even if you're not a Torchwood or Doctor Who fan. It's a very beautiful area with plenty of sights to take in and many wonderful...

Definitely worth seeing if you're a Doctor Who/Torchwood fan. Yes, some of it's looking a bit tattered and weather-beaten now, but there are still newer things being added here and there. There's also plenty of other stuff to see and do around Cardiff Bay. For the absolute miseries who post things along the lines of 'what's the point?', 'who's Ianto?', 'this should go now'... why bother going in the first place? You can easily bypass this area completely by NOT going down the steps to it, and it won't stop you from enjoying the rest of Cardiff Bay. And if you don't know anything about Torchwood or who Ianto was, Google is your friend, and it's free! Some of the comments are the equivalent of someone who hates sushi going to a sushi restaurant JUST to leave a scathing review. We can all like different things. Not everything's for everybody, and...