About Aberystwyth
The history, geography, and character of Aberystwyth.
History & Heritage
A castle, a resort and a university
The castle came first: Edward I's fortress, begun in the late 13th century after the first Welsh war, held by Owain Glyndŵr for four years from 1404, home to a Royal mint of Charles I from 1637 and slighted in 1649. The Victorians made a resort of the seafront, and the Royal Pier opened in 1865. The cliff railway followed on 1 August 1896, part of the pleasure ground on Constitution Hill. The university opened in the Old College on the seafront in 1872, and its first students arrived that October. On 2 February 1963 the Welsh Language Society, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, held its first protest on Trefechan Bridge, by the harbour.
The bar and the prom
The prom runs from the castle to the foot of Constitution Hill, and at the northern end there is an iron bar that students and visitors kick for luck. There is no agreed explanation. One story has a boy saved by it in a storm in January 1938; another has the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, tying a shoelace against it in 1894; another that the men waiting outside Alexandra Hall in the years after 1910 paced up and down and kicked it at the end of their walk. The university keeps the tradition on its Founders' Day walk, from the Old College to the foot of the hill. Sioned Wiliam's 2018 novel about Aberystwyth students is called Cicio'r Bar.
The library on the hill
The National Library of Wales stands on Penglais Hill above the town, the legal deposit library for the country, with free exhibitions and views over the bay. The university's Arts Centre is on the campus nearby. Welsh appears alongside English on the signs.
Wildlife & Nature
Marine Life
Cardigan Bay dolphins
Bottlenose dolphins live in Cardigan Bay. The boat trips that go looking for them run from New Quay and Aberaeron on the coast to the south, not from Aberystwyth, so treat Aber as a place to look from the prom rather than to sail from.
Summer, on calm days
Birdlife
Starlings under the Royal Pier
Thousands of starlings roost under the Royal Pier from autumn to early spring, arriving at dusk in separate groups and sometimes flying in synchrony before they settle. Nation.Cymru says the resident population has fallen and the species is on the Red List.
Autumn and winter, at dusk
Red kites at Bwlch Nant yr Arian
Natural Resources Wales feeds red kites by the lake at Bwlch Nant yr Arian every day at 2pm, nine miles east of Aberystwyth on the A44, and says to expect as many as 150.
Any day at 2pm; more kites in winter