Our Blog - Cardigan, Wales

We've now made it all the way to the West coast of Wales, to the town of Cardigan. The Welsh name for the town is Aberteifi, which (based on what we learned about Welsh names) means "at the mouth of the Teifi River". As you would expect, the town sits at the tidal reach of the Teifi River. The town dates back to late 11th century when a Norman castle was built here, which then held the first National Eisteddfod in 1176. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was a large commercial port (7 times larger than Cardiff and 3 times larger than Swansea). Unfortunately, the river silted up and the shipping business declined and became inactive by the early 20th century. It is a pretty small town, just over 4,000 people, but still has a fairly nice downtown area. Between 2006 and 2008, the town restored many of the shop facades in the town centre. Seems like their work was successful as Cardigan was named one of the best places to live in Wales in 2017.

The Guildhall (market) was built between 1858 and 1860 and it reflects the great prosperity that the town had during the 18th and 19th centuries with the shipping industry. It was the first civic building in Britain to be built in the High Victorian Gothic style (sometimes called Ruskinian Gothic), which is characterized by the use of multi-color decoration, varying texture, and Gothic details.

The Parish Church of St. Mary is another church which resembles a castle, with a tall, square tower with what looks like defensive positions on top. Started in medieval times, it was the priory church for the medieval Benedictine cell of Chertsey Abbey. The chancel dates to the 14th century, one of the east windows contains fragments of 15th century glass, and some of the other windows go back to the 16th century. The tower collapsed in 1705 and was rebuilt.

Cardigan Castle sits right on the river and was built in 1136 to replace an original motte-and-bailey castle about a mile away. Just after completion, it was successfully defended and remained standing while the town itself was taken by Welsh invaders and burned. It changed hands again multiple times and the tall walls were added in 1244 for added protection. It was damaged during the English Civil War and then used as a prison until the 18th century.

During World War II, the local guards built a guard position (a pillbox) so that the soldiers could watch the river in the same way that the medieval soldiers would have done. Due to the position of the city, there was concern that German forces would land in Ireland and attempt to invade the British mainland from the west through Wales. It had very thick concrete walls since they now had to protect the soldiers from shell fire rather than arrows.

There were 7 towers around the castle in medieval times, although only 4 survive today. In the East tower, they have placed a giant Eisteddfod chair, which is decorated with hunting symbols, a crown, and the 3 ravens of the family crest of the builder of the original stone castle, Lord Rhys.

This is the back side of the house and you can see the round tower, which is the oldest surviving part of the castle and dates back to 1244. The original 1171 stone castle was rebuilt in 1244 when Robert Waleran took over the castle. He was aware that the local stone was prone to crumbling and so added spur foundations, which you can see, to provide extra support.

A Georgian house was added in the early 1800's, which is still there. Some of the walls of this house follow the original lines of the castle and the builders used the remains of the medieval walls for the foundation. It has been totally restored as it was in a total state of disrepair (I'll get to that story in a minute).

They have a special exhibit of a cardigan (sweater) that was knitted by volunteers in the town, and features various things of the town, including the river and the Guildhall.

Here is where the somewhat sad story starts. In 1940, the castle and house were bought by the daughter of a shipping magnate who moved into the Georgian house. The house and castle walls got into such a bad state that the outer walls had to be propped up (there are pictures showing this near the walls) and the house was declared unfit for human habitation. For the last 6 years or so, she lived in a camp trailer that was parked in front of the house (can you imagine how bad the house must have been?). She finally moved to a nursing home in the 1990's and sold the castle in 2001 to be able to pay her bills. If you want to stay there, there is actually a B&B and self-catering accommodations that you can rent out.

Golf was first played in Cardigan in 1895 on a nine hole course named The Cardigan and Tivyside Golf Club. However, that club died a few years later. Another 9 hold course was built in 1902 at a seaside resort but was closed down during World War I. It reopened in 1923 and there are now 18 holes literally built on the top of a cliff :-). You can see what great views we had of the water below, but you can also see how brown the course was (remember I said 50 days without ANY rain, and temperatures higher than have been seen in Wales for years). It wasn't too bad to play with it being so brown ... you just had to think about each hole. You could take much shorter clubs, even irons off tees as the ball would roll forever. That was great if you hit straight ... not so great if you were offline as it would roll forever into the "hay".

Continue to Day 10: Cardigan to Pembroke or go back to the main Wales vacation blog page