Aberdovey

Aberdovey (Aberdyfi in Welsh) is a village on the estuary of the River Dyfi in north Wales. The village was founded around the shipbuilding industry, but is known best known as a seaside resort. Attractions in the village include the Plas Penhelig Gardens and a yacht club.

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). It is four miles from Tywyn, on the north bank of the Dyfi estuary.

Aberdovey is still a popular tourist attraction, with many returning holidaymakers, especially from the metropolitan areas of England, including the West Midlands, which is less than 100 miles to the east. 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 under Cardigan Bay (Seithennin, the drunkard, having 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 Aberdovey.