Visit Cardigan & Cardigan Walks Partner To Uncover Cardigan’s History

By Eoghan McHugh, Cardigan Walks

“Cardigan is full of so much rich history – reflecting its past as one of the largest, most important ports and port authorities in all of the British Isles. And that important history has been pushed aside and forgotten about,” says Julian Beynon-Lewis, Chief Executive of Visit Cardigan, whose offices are in the Guildhall in town. A building that was the first of its kind when built in 1860, yet that fact has sorely been lost in time with several calls to tear it down to be a parking structure!

This history is intermingled with many of Cardigan’s buildings – more than 100 buildings in a town of around 4,000 are listed!

To share the history and stories, Visit Cardigan has partnered with local tour company Cardigan Walks offering a free audio walking tour of the town.

“Offering our tour of Cardigan through Visit Cardigan makes sense to us. Every year, the site gets loads of traffic and queries from people interested in town about what to do. Too many queries, in fact, for the team to keep up! Our family-friendly audio walking tour as entertainment for visitors may help answer some of those questions around what to do while visiting and the stories behind buildings or the town’s history.” Says Cardigan Walks founder Eoghan McHugh.

Cardigan has a rich and colourful history dating farther back than records show. But we know Norman conquerors came here and built a castle. The area was fought over continuously for a few centuries as the broader power struggles continued through the British Isles. In that time frame, there’s epic stuff – the Battle of Crug Mawr and the very first Eisteddfod – essentially a housewarming party for the newly built stone castle in 1176!

Visit Cardigan is an online directory covering all things Cardigan run by Menter Aberteifi.

Cardigan Walks is a local tour company who have developed several audio walking tours of communities through Cardigan Bay and West Wales. The company was established in 2022 as a Community Interest Company to open employment opportunities for young adults to gain exposure to using digital tools and work experience. “We want to help young adults from the area do one of three things through our programme – identify an area they’re interested in, and we could work together to help them get the qualifications needed to pursue that career path. Give them meaningful experience enabling them to apply for a job and start a career. Or, be an example – I started Cardigan Walks after seeing an opportunity. I’ve managed to secure grant funding. There’s nothing stopping someone from identifying something that interests them and trying to develop that into a career benefitting them and the community in Cardigan.”

Head to the Visit Cardigan website today to explore more within the town!