Aberaeron Ceredigion
Aberaeron is one of the most complete and architecturally coherent planned towns in Wales, a small harbour settlement on the Ceredigion coast that was laid out in the early nineteenth century around a newly constructed harbour and developed with unusual discipline and consistency to create a townscape of considerable charm. The town was essentially the creation of the Reverend Alban Thomas Jones Gwynne, who inherited the estate in 1807 and used it to finance the construction of both the harbour and the grid of streets and squares that define Aberaeron's character today. The result is a Georgian planned town that survives in remarkably intact condition.
The harbour is the heart of Aberaeron and gives the town its most distinctive visual quality. The inner harbour is enclosed by stone quays and surrounded on three sides by the colourfully painted Georgian and Victorian buildings that have become the defining image of the town. Small fishing vessels and leisure craft sit in the basin, and the combination of pastel-painted facades, the working harbour and the hills of Ceredigion rising behind creates a scene that is simultaneously quintessentially Welsh and reminiscent of the fishing towns of Cornwall or Brittany. The honey pot character of the setting has made Aberaeron one of the most visited small towns on Cardigan Bay.
The streets behind the harbour reveal the planned town at its best, with consistent Georgian terraces and the town's squares maintaining the architectural discipline of the original development. The town has a good selection of independent shops, galleries, cafés and restaurants reflecting both its local economy and the significant tourism that the coastal setting and architectural quality attract. The Harbourmaster Hotel on the harbour front is among the most celebrated small hotels in Wales.
The coastline either side of Aberaeron is typical of the Ceredigion coast, with low cliffs, rocky coves and the wide arc of Cardigan Bay stretching north toward the LlÅ·n Peninsula. The Wales Coast Path passes through the town and provides good coastal walking in both directions, while the landscape inland toward the Cambrian Mountains offers a very different experience of this beautiful and relatively uncrowded Welsh county.