The history of Aberystwyth may be said to date from the building of a fortress on the present Castle Hill, in 1109. Edward I rebuilt Strongbow's castle in 1277, after its destruction by the Welsh. Between the years 1404 and 1408 Aberystwyth Castle was in the hands of Owain Glyndwr, but finally surrendered to Prince Harry (the future King Henry V of England). Shortly after this the town was incorporated under the title of Ville de Lampadarn (the ancient name of the place being Llanbadarn Gaerog, or the fortified Llanbadarn, to distinguish it from Llanbadarn Fawr, the village one mile inland). It is thus styled in a charter granted by Henry VIII, but by Elizabeth I's time the town was invariably termed Aberystwyth in all documents. In 1647 the Parliamentarian troops razed the castle, so that its remains are now inconsiderable, though portions of three towers still exist.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg held their historic first protest in Aberystwyth, back in 1963, and here also the first ever independant Welsh Evangelical Church was established (see Evangelical Movement of Wales).

Aberystwyth hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1865, 1916, 1952 and 1992.

This page was last updated: 12 September 2005

Town history extracts are taken from Wikipedia and are licensed under GFDL