Five Things I Want To Do When We Go To Aberystwyth

In July I’m going with Luke and his family on a week-long trip to Aberystwyth in West Wales. His sister went to university there and is graduating from her masters so it’s been combined into a little holiday. We spent a weekend there last summer when we visited her but this year we have a whole week to play with.

Luke’s parents are looking at booking a house or summer home so we can cook for ourselves and have it feel more like home. Me and Luke will be coming straight from a festival late on Saturday evening so I can’t wait for a nice long shower!

I’m keen to explore as much of the local area as we can. I don’t get to Wales all that often. But I don’t want us to be spending too much money while we’re away as we’re saving. Plus as Luke’s self-employed he won’t be paid anything for the time off he has. The easiest thing might be for us to hire tricycles and cycle around the city. That’s if I can learn to ride in time. I have done a bit of research and here are some of the things I want to do.

Aberystwyth Cliff Railway

The Aberystwyth Electric Cliff Railway is the longest one all in all of Britain, with 778 feet of track. It opened back in 1896 using water balance, but since 1921 it’s had an electric motor. The railway winds along the cliffs as a breezy 4 miles an hour. But the great thing about the slow speed is you can enjoy the panoramic views as you go along.

Constitution Hill

This is where the cliff railway is housed and the hill rises 430 feet from the north end of Aberystwyth promenade. The views look absolutely stunning and on a clear day, you can see loads of Welsh mountain peaks including Snowdon.

The Camera Obscura

Another thing housed up Constitution Hill is the biggest Camera Obscura in the world. I couldn’t believe this when I read it as West Wales is such a random place. The 14-inch lens can take a birds-eye view of more than 1000 square miles of land. It has a 360-degree sweep around Aberystwyth and the view is reflected onto a circular screen in the darkened viewing gallery which is so cool. I went to the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh and loved it. But it was a fraction of the size of this one.

Devil’s Bridge

About 12 miles outside of Aberystwyth there’s an area known as Pontarfynach to the Welsh which means ‘The bridge over the Mynach river’. The area is famous for its waterfalls and three stacked bridges and it looks like a great place to spend a few hours exploring.

The Mynach Falls are where the River Mynach drops 90 metres to meet the River Rheidol underneath. You can pay a small fee and follow the pathway right up to the falls. From here you can see the three bridges stacked on top of each other which looks pretty cool.

According to a legend the lowest bridge was built by Satan himself to allow a woman to rescue her cow who had got stuck on the other side of the gorge. His one condition for building it was that he got the soul of the first living creature to cross the bridge. The woman was clever though and got her dog to run across first so the devil ended up with the soul of a dog.

King Arthur´s Labyrinth

For something a bit more history-based I want to visit King Arthur’s Labyrinth which looks a bit like the Yorvik Centre in York. You set sail underground and back thousands of years to the Dark Ages and enjoy tales of King Arthur and other Welsh legends. I love stuff like this as they’re so interesting and you’ll get to find out plenty about the area.

Have you ever been to Aberystwyth or West Wales?

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