Aberdyfi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Statistics
Aberdyfi
Population:	800
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	Maps for SN615965
Administration
Principal area:	Gwynedd
Constituent country:	Wales
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Police force:	North Wales Police
Ceremonial county:	Gwynedd
Historic county:	Merionethshire
Post office and telephone
Post town:	ABERDYFI / ABERDOVEY
Postal district:	LL35
Dialling code:	+44-1654
Politics
UK Parliament:	Meirionnydd Nant Conwy
European Parliament:	Wales

Aberdyfi (sometimes Aberdovey in English) is a village on the estuary of the River Dyfi on the west coast of Wales. The village was founded around the shipbuilding industry, but is known best known as a seaside resort with a high quality beach which was awarded the Blue flag beach award in 2005. There is a very active yacht club in the village.

While the town centre is the seafront, yacht club, pier and beach, the town itself stretches back from the coast and up the steep hillside. The town lies in the midst of typical Welsh coast scenery (steep green hills and sheep farms). On the north bank of the Dyfi estuary, it is accessed by the A493 with Tywyn four miles to the north and Machynlleth 11 miles to the east.

Aberdyfi is still a popular tourist attraction, with many returning holidaymakers, especially from the metropolitan areas of England, such as the West Midlands, which is less than 100 miles to the east. A relatively large proportion of houses in the village are holiday homes. This has resulted in high house prices. Popular activities, apart from spending time on the beach, include many watersports, such as windsurfing, sailing, and canoeing on the estuary.

The village was the subject of the folk song, The Bells of Aberdovey (Welsh: Clychau Aberdyfi). The song refers to the legend of a submerged former kingdom of Cantre’r Gwaelod (English: Lowland Hundred) beneath Cardigan Bay, (Seithennin, the drunkard, is said to have created the bay itself), and its bells which can, they say, be heard ringing beneath the water. The composer is unknown, but the words were written by John Ceiriog Hughes, during the 19th century. The same legend also inspired a Victorian era-novel The Misfortunes of Elphin (1829), by Thomas Love Peacock. The drowned kingdom of the legend also plays a major role in Silver on the Tree, the last book of The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper, parts of which are set in Aberdyfi.