Cardiff
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50 free Cardiff trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Cardiff packs a lot into a small capital. In little more than a century it grew from a quiet market town into one of the busiest ports on Earth, then turned its old docklands into a waterfront of theatres, studios and a national parliament. This quiz covers the whole city: the castle and its wartime secrets, the waterfront, famous stadium nights, the television made in its studios, and the writers, singers and athletes who were born there. A few questions are about odd landmarks that most visitors walk straight past. The questions start easy and get harder, so they suit children, families and school groups as well as locals and pub quiz teams. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Spillers, founded in Cardiff in 1894, is recognised as the world's oldest shop selling what?
Records
Records have been sold at Spillers since the age of wax cylinders, when Henry Spiller also sold phonographs and repaired musical instruments.
Q 02Which children's author, born in Cardiff in 1916, has a Cardiff Bay plaza named after him?
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl spent his early childhood in Cardiff, where at age eight he was caned for hiding a dead mouse in a sweet shop's gobstopper jar.
Q 03Which BBC science-fiction series was relaunched in 2005 with its production moved to Cardiff?
Doctor Who
Doctor Who returned in 2005 with production moved to BBC Wales, and from 2012 it was filmed at the BBC's Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay.
Q 04Cardiff grew into the world's largest port for exporting which cargo from the South Wales Valleys?
Coal
Coal made Cardiff so central to the trade that the price for the whole British market was set in the city's own exchange.
Q 05Which polar explorer's doomed South Pole expedition sailed from Cardiff aboard the Terra Nova in 1910?
Captain Scott
Captain Scott reached the South Pole in January 1912, only to find that Amundsen's team had arrived 34 days earlier.
Q 06Which bird gives Cardiff City football club its nickname, a nod to the home shirts worn since 1908?
Bluebirds
Bluebirds stayed the nickname even when an owner controversially switched the home shirts to red between 2012 and 2015.
Q 07What unexpected structure stands in the lake at Cardiff's Roath Park as a memorial to a polar voyage?
A lighthouse
A lighthouse was built in the lake in 1915, and inside it sits a scale model of the Terra Nova, the ship that left Cardiff for Antarctica.
Q 08Which sport do the Cardiff Devils play in the Elite League at their arena in Cardiff Bay?
Ice hockey
Ice hockey came to the city in 1986, when the Devils were formed alongside a new national rink, and they won their first home game 32–0.
Q 09Which river flows past Cardiff Castle and through the city centre before emptying into Cardiff Bay?
Taff
The Taff once ran closer to the city centre, until Brunel had it diverted westwards to make a safer site for the railway station.
Q 10Which animal, added in 1931, sits on Cardiff's Animal Wall alongside a pelican, a beaver and two raccoons?
An anteater
An anteater was among six stone animals carved for the wall that year, and its nose went missing in the late 1990s until repairs gave it a new one.
Q 11What is the Welsh name for Cardiff, which grew out of older words meaning a fort on a river?
Caerdydd
Caerdydd is the modern spelling of the medieval Caerdyf, and English speakers turned that older form into Cardiff.
Q 12Which creature does Cardiff's official Welsh-language motto promise will lead the way?
The red dragon
The red dragon in the motto is the same beast that fills the national flag of Wales, set against a field of green and white.
Q 13Which coastal city to the west ranks second in population in Wales, behind Cardiff?
Swansea
Swansea was once the bigger of the two, and it was only by the 1881 census that Cardiff had overtaken it to become the largest town in Wales.
Q 21What is the Welsh name of the parliament that meets in a glass-fronted building on Cardiff Bay?
Senedd
The Senedd sits in a building opened on St David's Day in 2006, where the public can watch debates from a gallery above the chamber.
Q 22Which arm of the sea, shared with Somerset and Devon, lies to the south of Cardiff?
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel flooded disastrously in 1607, a surge that changed the course of Cardiff's river and ruined St Mary's parish church.
Q 23Which Spanish club beat Juventus 4–1 in the 2017 Champions League final, staged in Cardiff?
Real Madrid
Real Madrid became the first team to successfully defend the European title since Milan in 1990.
Q 14Which invaders built the first fort on the site of Cardiff Castle, close to the mouth of the river?
The Romans
The Romans' ruined walls became the base of the Norman castle's outer perimeter, and original Roman stonework still shows in the southern wall.
Q 15What feature of Cardiff's Principality Stadium, opened in 1999, was only the second of its kind in Europe?
A retractable roof
A retractable roof lets the stadium be closed up in bad weather, and it is still among the largest venues in the world to have one.
Q 16Which trophy did Cardiff City win in 1927, becoming the only club from outside England ever to lift it?
The FA Cup
The FA Cup left England for the only time when Cardiff beat Arsenal 1–0 in the final. They won the Welsh Cup that season too, taking two countries' national cups at once.
Q 17Which Cardiff-born cyclist became the first Welshman to win the Tour de France in 2018?
Geraint Thomas
Geraint Thomas had already won two Olympic gold medals on the track before he turned his focus to road racing's biggest prize.
Q 18Which motorway connects Cardiff with Newport and London to the east, through four junctions around the city?
M4
The M4 reaches South Wales by crossing the River Severn, and since December 2018 drivers have made that crossing without paying a toll.
Q 19During the Second World War, what were the tunnels inside the walls of Cardiff Castle used as?
Air-raid shelters
Air-raid shelters in the walls could hold up to 1,800 people in eight sections, and the castle was also used to tether defensive balloons above the city.
Q 20Which London stadium's rebuilding sent English football's top cup finals to Cardiff from 2001 to 2006?
Wembley
Wembley was a building site for those years, so Cardiff staged England's cup finals and play-off finals in its place.
Q 24Which Cardiff-born winger joined a Spanish club in 2013 for what was then a world-record transfer fee?
Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale ended his first season there by scoring the extra-time goal that put his new club ahead in the 2014 Champions League final.
Q 25What nickname was given to Cardiff's old docklands district, where the singer Shirley Bassey was born?
Tiger Bay
Tiger Bay became one of the UK's oldest multicultural communities, home to people of more than 50 nationalities drawn in by the port.
Q 26Which multi-sport event, held in Cardiff in 1958, introduced the baton relay that still precedes it?
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games of 1958 also saw an anti-apartheid crowd at Cardiff Arms Park protest against South Africa's all-white team.
Q 27Which country did England face in 2009 when Cardiff staged the first Test cricket match ever held in Wales?
Australia
Australia were denied victory in that opening Ashes Test, as England hung on for a draw with just one wicket to spare.
Q 28Which sci-fi drama starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack is set in Cardiff, with a base beneath the Bay?
Torchwood
Torchwood hid its headquarters, the Hub, beneath a waterfront plaza, with a secret lift that rose beside the fountain.
Q 29Which Cardiff-born singer shot to fame as a schoolgirl with the 1998 classical album Voice of an Angel?
Charlotte Church
Charlotte Church became the youngest artist to have a No. 1 album on the British classical crossover charts.
Q 30Which Cardiff-born rock and roll singer topped the UK chart with Green Door and Merry Christmas Everyone?
Shakin' Stevens
Shakin' Stevens was born Michael Barratt, the youngest of 13 children in a Cardiff family, and went on to four UK number ones.