Aberystwyth Holiday Cottages

More About Aberystwyth Holiday Cottages

Inland the Rheidol valley climbs twelve miles to Devil’s Bridge. There you can see three bridges stacked one above another over a gorge with a waterfall dropping through it.

North of the town the sand runs flat and wide at Borth and Ynyslas, at the mouth of the Dyfi. The cottages here are a short drive from that sand.

Steam on the Rheidol

The steam train that leaves from beside the main station in Aberystwyth was not built for holidaymakers at all. The Vale of Rheidol Railway opened to the public on 22 December 1902. It is a narrow gauge line, a shade under two feet. It was laid to bring lead and zinc ore down from the mines in the hills, along with timber from the valley woods.

By then the ore was already running out. The mines closed one after another, and the railway was left carrying visitors instead. The Great Western Railway took it over in the 1920s and built new engines for it. Those same locomotives still work the line.

The train climbs just under twelve miles from sea level to Devil’s Bridge. You can ride it up through oak woods on the side of the valley. The run takes about an hour each way, and steam trains run every day from late March to early November. Staying here makes the ride an easy day out.

The lowest of the three bridges is medieval, and you can take a stepped path down beside the Mynach falls. It is a stiff climb back up, so do not rush it before a train home.

Hafod and the old mines

In the Ystwyth valley, the Hafod Estate covers about 494 acres of the Ystwyth valley and the hills around it. You can choose from five marked walks, from the moderate 0.9-mile Ystwyth Gorge Walk to the strenuous 3.7-mile Gentleman’s Walk. The kite feed at Bwlch Nant yr Arian is on the same road as Devil’s Bridge, ten miles out on the A44. It is an easy day from your cottage.

The mines the railway was built for have left a landscape of their own. There are ruined engine houses and grey spoil tips around Cwmystwyth and Ponterwyd. The open hills above them are crossed by tracks. Keep children and dogs on the paths rather than the tips: the waste is full of lead.