The Vale Resort
| The Vale Resort | |
|---|---|
 |
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| General information | |
| Location | Hensol, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales |
| Address | Hensol Park, Hensol, Vale of Glamorgan CF72 8JY |
| Coordinates | 51°29′43″N 3°22′39″W / 51.49528°N 3.37750°WCoordinates: 51°29′43″N 3°22′39″W / 51.49528°N 3.37750°W |
| Owner | Leekes |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 143 |
| Number of restaurants | 1 |
| Website | |
| http://www.vale-hotel.com/ | |
The Vale Resort is a golf, spa and leisure hotel and resort in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. It consists of a hotel, spa, restaurant, two championship golf courses, golf clubhouse and a conference centre.
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 4500 members. As of 2012, the spa is the largest in Wales.
The 143-bedroom hotel was opened in November 1999, 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 included 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 2005-2006. 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 pound 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.
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