The wall was constructed by Robert Fitzhamon the Lord of Glamorgan, and was first mentioned in 1111 by Caradoc of Llancarfan in his book Brut y Tywysogion (Chronicle of the Princes).

[1] By 1184, Maurice de Berkeley had built wooden palisades with South, North, East and West Gates.

Gilbert de Clare later strengthened the defences of Cardiff Castle and the wooden palisades were replaced by stone walls.

[3] In 1404, forces of Owain Glyndŵr, the last native Prince of Wales, destroyed much of the wall by the West Gate.

[1] In 1451, a charter granted by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, mentioned that Cardiff had been re-fortified, with new walls, towers, gates and ditches.

[1] During the 16th century travelling writers described Cardiff's town wall as being intact, and it began to deteriorate around 1550 to 1560.

[4] In 1890, one of the last surviving sections of the wall was photographed (image right) at the rear of an old infant school in The Hayes.

[7] Not long after Sandby's print was published in 1786, the North Gate was demolished to make room for the increasing traffic and the Glamorganshire Canal as recorded by Cardiff Council minutes 5 May 1786.

It already stood when, in 1171, William Fitz Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the Lord of Glamorgan, mentioned it as the eastern boundary of the borough.

[9] Locally it was known as Moor Gate because it led to Soundry or South Town and onto moorlands,[9] today known as Butetown.

A stone building replaced the timber construction and stood approximately 25 ft (7.6 m) high and 25 feet wide.

When Oxford Arcade was demolished to make way for St Davids shopping centre, archaeologists tried to find remains of the town wall, as well as Cock's Tower, which was a medieval watchpost and dungeon until around the 16th century.

[16] Other connections with the town wall that still exist include the thoroughfares Westgate Street and Golate, plus the thoroughfare in St Davids shopping centre called the Town Wall and the Northgate Building, close to the original North Gate.

So when Oxford Arcade was demolished to make way for St Davids shopping centre, archaeologists tried to find remains of the town wall, as well as Cock's Tower, which was a medieval watchpost and dungeon until around the 16th century.