This pretty and idyllic market town with cobbled lanes favours independent shops, antiquities, pubs and restaurants.
Discreetly hidden just off the High Street is Cowbridge Physic Garden, a haven of peace and tranquillity and creates awareness of the curative properties of plants.
The town lies on the site of a Roman settlement identified by some scholars as the fort of Bovium (cow-place). Recent excavations have revealed extensive Roman settlement; the town lies alongside a Roman road. There are 17th century references to a ‘cow-bridge’ over a tributary of the river Thaw (which flows through the town) but Cowbridge’s Welsh name, Y Bont-faen, means literally ‘the stone bridge’.