Location

The Plas Antaron Hotel is situated on the south eastern edge of Aberystwyth, nicely avoiding the towns traffic congestion and one way system and with ample on-site parking also avoiding the towns parking problems.

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Enjoy the splendours of Wales

WALES is a land of mountains and lakes, of granite and slate, of old hill farms and cascading rivers. There are castles, hill forts, stately homes, old mills, and wild passes where armies have clashed down the ages.

It is a country of haunting beauty and grandeur, of mountains, hidden valleys, still glacial lakes, and deep forests. It is a country old in culture, with traditions in poetry and music that may date back to the Bronze Age and old in language, for the Welsh that is still spoken here is Europe's oldest living language.

Aberystwyth in mid Wales, is not just a holiday resort; it is a bustling university town, and an important shopping centre. It is a place where you can divide your time between the traditional pleasures of the seaside and the unspoilt beauty of the mountains and countryside, where there are peaceful villages, stone farmhouses, ancient churches and good country inns - most with glorious views of the sea or mountains.

There was a prehistoric settlement at Pen Dinas, a large hill to the south of the town topped with a column, but the establishment of the town dates from 1277, when Edmund Crouchback, brother of Edward 1, built the original castle. Owain Glyndwr held the castle from 1404 to 1408, but Cromwell's forces captured and destroyed it during the civil war, and today the ruins stand in gardens which are an ideal viewpoint for sitting and looking out over Cardigan Bay, with its population of rare bottle-nose dolphins. Charles I established a mint in the town which was operated by Thomas Bushell, who minted coins from silver obtained from local mines.

Between the castle ruins and the pier (the top end of which was burnt out) is the oldest of the town's university buildings - a splendid Victorian gothic edifice originally built as an hotel. At the northern end of the graceful crescent-shaped Promenade is Constitution Hill, with its electric cliff railway. Aberystwyth is the terminus for two railway lines - the old mid Wales line from Shrewsbury, and the narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol, which runs twelve miles up the Rheidol Valley to Devil's Bridge.

The newest of the university buildings are on Penglais Hill on the north side of the town, and the newly refurbished Art Centre houses a gallery, theatre, and a restaurant with breathtaking views over the town and sea. Nearby is the National Library of Wales which contains over five million books, manuscripts and documents.

Among the treasures are the Black Book of Carmarthen, the earliest Welsh manuscript; the Book of Taliesin; the Laws of Hywel Dda and the earliest complete text of the Mabinogion; a collection of ancient Celtic myths about divinity, rebirth and the underworld, which contains the earliest Arthurian story, interpretations of historical events, and satire. It is regarded as one of the masterpieces of medieval literature.