The Hafod, Aberystwyth

After an hour or so on a Vale of Rheidol Railway steam train from Aberystwyth my family and I arrived at Devil’s Bridge. An exhausting walk around the Devil’s Bridge Falls trail built up a thirst so we decided to stop off at the Hafod Hotel for some much needed refreshment. This is a high ceiling open plan venue with a bar in the centre of the back wall. I spied a large plasma, but this was turned off and there were no live sport signs. A door to the left leads to the hotel and the toilets on the 1st floor. These toilets reminded me of the bogs in the toilet block of my primary school back in mid-eighties. These are long since demolished. A door to the right leads to a games room with pool table and dartboard. This room is adjacent to the Three Bridges Bar which looked as though it had been closed for a long time. Under awnings outside the entrance are a few picnic tables and more seating can be found across the road on the edge of the vale. A limited standard and premium keg range was available from the bar that also supports four hand pumps, three of which were on. These were drawing Mantle Moho, Wye Valley Bitter and Gwynty Y Ddraig cider. During our visit the lunch menu was in operation with most meals costing around £10. Unsurprisingly the dinner menu is a little more expensive; a burger comes in at £13, which is pretty good when considering that this is the only hot food outlet in this tourist hotspot. I found the service to be very polite and was glad we stopped off rather than rushing back for the return train.

Official site of The Hafod - thehafod.co.uk

Official site of The Hafod - thehafod.co.uk

This was a much better visit than my previous visit to this bar. But then that was 32 years ago on a wet Sunday lunchtime when the county was 'dry' on a Sunday. And despite there clearly being people in the Three Bridges Bar section we got waved away and had to leave thirsty. Not sure if the bar section attached to the hotel still functions as a bar because it wasn't open and what previously was the dining room next door seems to have undergone a complete makeover and changed into the bar/ dining area for the hotel. We popped in for some refreshments after doing the falls and was pleasantly surprised to find a proper serving bar facing you as you enter with four pumps on the bar with two ales and two ciders available. The ales were Wye Valley Bitter and the Celt experience Castro Mosaic and the latter was a really nice drop. There is a very pleasant comfortable settee section to the right of the bar area but the rest of the space is still mainly laid to tables and more aligned to eating. We can't pass judgement on the food as we didn’t eat here, but it’s now a decent room for a drink after emerging from the falls. I’m not sure I’ll put this on my hit list to stay in though, because you have to use the hotel toilets when using the bar and these were truly from another era making me wonder what the rest of the hotel is like.

Surprisingly good bar attached to the hotel. Two ales available, both Evan Evans and they were in good shape and not too expensive. Worth dropping in. Click the link at the bottom of the page for an expanded review.