page_title: Aberdyfi
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Aberdyfi / History
caption_attribution_description: View looking down on the town and beach. People in foreground.
context_page_description: Aberdyfi, also known as Aberdovey, is a village and community on the north side of the estuary of the River Dyfi in Gwynedd, on the west coast of Wales.
  The Community had a population of 878 as of the 2011 census. The electoral ward had a larger population of 1,282 and includes the community of Pennal.
  The village was founded around the harbour and shipbuilding industry, but is now best known as a seaside resort with a high quality beach. The centre is on the river and seafront, around the original harbour, jetty and beach but it stretches back from the coast and up the steep hillside in the midst of typical Welsh coastal scenery of steep green hills and sheep farms. Penhelig, with its own railway station, is the eastern part of the village.
  Aberdyfi is a popular tourist attraction, with many returning holidaymakers, especially from the metropolitan areas of England, such as the West Midlands, which is less than 100 miles to the east. A relatively large proportion of houses in the village are now holiday homes, resulting in high house prices. The town is located within the Snowdonia National Park.
context_section_description: Local tradition suggests that the Romans established a track into Aberdyfi as part of the military occupation of Wales around AD78.
  The strategic location in mid-Wales was the site of several conferences between north and south Wales princes in 540, 1140, and for the Council of Aberdyfi in 1216. The hill in the centre of Aberdyfi, Pen-y-Bryn, has been claimed to be the site of fortifications in the 1150s, which were soon destroyed. The site of Aberdyfi Castle however is usually said to be at the motte earthworks further up the river near Glandyfi.
  During the Spanish Armada of 1597, a Spanish ship, the Bear of Amsterdam missed her objective at Milford Haven and ended up having entered the Dyfi estuary. She was unable to leave for 10 days because of the wind and could not be boarded as no suitable boats were available. An attempt to burn her was frustrated by winds and when she did leave she ended up being captured by a waiting English fleet off the Cornish coast.
  In the 1700s, the village grew with the appearance of several of the inns still in current use (The Dovey Hotel, Britannia and Penhelig Arms). Copper was mined in the present Copperhill Street, and lead in Penhelig.
caption: Aberdyfi, 1860
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