10 Best Sights in Aberystwyth, Wales

The British writer Caitlin Moran once wrote fondly of Aberystwyth's "Glitter-glue sea and smashed-cake castle," and these crumbling ruins at the southern end of the bay do have an endearing quality. Built in 1277, the castle was one of the key strongholds captured in the early 15th century by Owain Glyndwr, a Welsh prince who led the country's last serious bid for independence from England. Today it's a romantic, windswept ruin, rather incongruously used as a cut-through walking path by locals for whom it's nothing out of the ordinary at all. To find the ruins, just walk along the bay, away from the town center; they are located just after the small pier.

The Victorian-era Aberystwyth Cliff Railway deposits you at the top of Constitution Hill. At the top is a camera obscura, a course to play crazy golf, and a café. Opened in 1896, it's the longest electric cliff railway in Britain.

Housed on the upper floor of a flamboyant 1905 Edwardian theater, the Ceredigion Museum has collections related to folk history and the building's own music hall past. Highlights include a reconstructed mud-walled cottage from 1850 and items illustrating the region's seafaring, lead-mining, and farming history. There's a nice café here selling local products, and the tourist information center is downstairs.

At the northern end of the beach promenade, Constitution Hill dominates the skyline. From the top you can see much of the Welsh coastline (and, on exceptionally clear days, Ireland). There's a small café at the top and plenty of space for a picnic. If you're feeling hale and hearty, there's a long footpath that zigzags up to the 430-foot summit. From there, a 5-mile-long coastal path stretches to the village of Borth, a smaller, sleepier resort north of Aberystwyth where the remains of a 3,000-year-old petrified forest may be seen on the beach at low tide.

A modern version of a Victorian amusement, Great Aberystwyth Camera Obscura is a massive 14-inch lens that gives you a bird's-eye view of Cardigan Bay and 26 Welsh mountain peaks. It's reached via the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway.

This late 18th-century Welsh gentry estate in the Aeron Valley, 17 miles south of Aberystwyth, is a superb example of the early work of John Nash (1752–1835). Nash was the leading architect of the Regency period and the designer of London's Marble Arch and Buckingham Palace. The estate survived with few changes until recently; it is a self-contained world with a farmyard, a brewery, and a café. The walled gardens are particularly beautiful.

This massive neoclassical building next to the University of Wales houses notable Welsh and other Celtic literary works among its more than 4.5 million volumes. The cache of public records makes it an invaluable tool if you're tracing your family tree. Also here is the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, which hosts lunchtime and evening film screenings.

Outside the village of Ponterwyd, 10 miles east of Aberystwyth, this 200-year-old silver-lead mine is now a museum where you can tour reproductions of mining buildings and some original machinery, including working waterwheels. Kids over the age of eight can also enjoy a few harmless scares on the Black Chasm ghost tour, though very young ones will be better off sticking to the Woo Hoo Woods adventure playground. It's cold in the mine, even on hot days, so bring a jacket or sweater. Times can vary; call to check, especially in the off-season.

At Aberystwyth Station you can hop on the steam-powered Vale of Rheidol Railway for an hour-long ride to the Devil's Bridge (Pont y Gwr Drwg, or, literally, "the Bridge of the Evil One"), where the rivers Rheidol and Mynach meet in a series of spectacular falls. Clamped between two rocky cliffs where a torrent of water pours unceasingly, there are actually three bridges, one built on top of the other. The oldest bridge is about 800 years old.

About 9 miles up the coast from Aberystwyth is Ynyslas Beach (pronounced "Inn-iss-lass"), a popular local beauty spot. Where the River Dyfi flows into the sea at Cardigan Bay, enormous dunes undulate from the sandy beach in a network of hillocks crisscrossed by wooden bridges. Ynyslas Beach is part of a nature reserve that is home to several species of butterfly and—unusual for the British Isles—lizards. The strong currents make the sea here unsuitable for swimming. Ynyslas is 8 miles north of Aberystwyth on the B4572. Amenities: food and drink; parking (£3). Best for: sunsets.