Aberystwyth, Wales

A seaside town that is home to a University and the National Library of Wales

Aberystwyth is a Welsh town that I used to know quite well, as I was a student there on two occasions, a decade apart.

Situated halfway along Cardigan Bay, Aberystwyth is almost on the line that divides North Wales from South Wales, in cultural and linguistic terms. A Welsh speaker who moves across the line is soon spotted as a “foreigner” because of the markedly different accents and word use north and south. Aberystwyth is thus something of a “melting pot” in this regard.

There is something about the name of this town (population about 16,000) that might raise an eyebrow or two, given that the river that flows to the south of the town and reaches the sea via the small harbour is the Rheidol and not the Ystwyth, and the town name translates as “mouth of the Ystwyth”. Surely it should be “Aberrheidol”?

The reason for the name is that the original settlement was located a mile and a half south of the current town, being a fortress built in the early 12th century by a Welsh-Norman lord known as Strongbow. This fortress was on a hill near where the River Ystwyth reached the sea, thus the name Aberystwyth was entirely appropriate. However, when the English King Edward I rebuilt Strongbow’s castle in 1277 he did…