Stand on the beach at Aberdyfi on a calm day and, so the legend goes, you might hear church bells ringing under the sea from Cantre’r Gwaelod, a lost kingdom drowned beneath Cardigan Bay. Charles Dibdin put the story into “The Bells of Aberdovey”, a song in his 1785 comic opera Liberty Hall. The village lines the north side of the Dyfi estuary inside Eryri, and the sand runs for miles up to Tywyn. Shipyards at Penhelig, the eastern end of the village, built 45 sailing ships between 1840 and 1880, and the first Outward Bound centre opened here in 1941. The estuary is popular for sailing and crabbing, but swimmers should watch for strong currents around its mouth.
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