() is a
Traditional County in Wales that came into being in
1282 .
In
1282 Edward I conquered the principality of Wales and divided the area into counties. The name Cardigan was an anglicization of the name for the historic kingdom of Ceredigion. The area of the county became a
District under the name
Ceredigion in 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972 , and since 1996 has formed the county of Ceredigion.
Cardiganshire is a maritime county bounded to the west by , the
Wye , the
Dulas , the
Llyfnant and
Rheidol , the last of which meets the Mynach in a 300 foot (100 m) plunge at the
Devil's Bridge chasm. The 50 miles of coastline has many sandy beaches.
The main towns are
Aberaeron ,
Aberystwyth ,
Cardigan ,
Lampeter ,
New Quay ,
Newcastle Emlyn (partly in Carmarthenshire) and
Tregaron . The chief river is the
Teifi which forms the border with Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire for much of its length. Tourism and agriculture, chiefly hill farming, are the most important industries.
Although Cardiganshire and historic
Merionethshire share a boundary, it is not possible to directly travel between the two as all road and rail traffic avoids the Dovey estuary and goes via
Machynlleth in historic
Montgomeryshire .
Cardiganshire's county council took over the functions of county administration from the
Quarter Sessions court in
1889 . It was abolished
1973 by the
Local Government Act 1972 — and it was succeeded by the
District of
Ceredigion in the new county of
Dyfed . This district was split out in
1996 as a
Unitary Authority , and has (bar minor realignments) identical borders to traditional Cardiganshire, and is sometimes known by that name.
- Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth ()
- Devil's Bridge ()
- Strata Florda Abbey ()
- Vale of Rheidol Railway ().
The
Cardigan Welsh Corgi derives its name from Cardiganshire
