Aberystwyth Promenade
Aberystwyth is the principal town of mid-Wales, a university and market town on Cardigan Bay whose long Victorian promenade, the ruins of its medieval castle, the electric cliff railway to Constitution Hill above the town and the cultural importance of the National Library of Wales make it the most significant single destination on the mid-Wales coast. The promenade, extending in a wide curve between the castle headland and the cliff railway at the north end, retains the Victorian and Edwardian seaside character that developed when the railway arrived in 1864 and the town became accessible to visitors from across the Midlands.
The Constitution Hill electric cliff railway, opened in 1896 and one of the longest electric cliff railways in the world, ascends the great hill above the north end of the promenade to a camera obscura and viewing platform with exceptional views of Cardigan Bay, the Cambrian Mountains and, on clear days, the entire arc from the Lleyn Peninsula to Pembrokeshire. The great Camera Obscura at the top provides a real-time projected image of the surrounding landscape and town in a Victorian optical technology whose simple fascination has not diminished.
The National Library of Wales on the hillside above the town is the copyright library for Wales and houses some of the most significant collections of Welsh language manuscripts and printed books in existence, including the Black Book of Carmarthen and the White Book of Rhydderch, the oldest surviving prose texts in the Welsh language.