Aberystwyth sits on Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales, and the pier is one of those Victorian structures that manages to feel both dignified and a little precarious at the same time. We drove over from the Midlands on a day when the clouds were doing more interesting things than the sun, which turned out to be exactly right for photography.
The pier dates from 1865 and has had a rough time over the years — storms have taken chunks of it more than once. What remains still has real character, and the pavilion at the end has been restored well enough to feel like a proper destination rather than just a ruin people walk past.
The town itself is a pleasant mix of university life and classic Welsh coast. The promenade curves around the bay in both directions, there are independent cafes doing good things with Welsh produce, and the camera obscura up on Constitution Hill gives you a peculiar bird’s-eye view across the whole area. The grey light off the Irish Sea softened everything and gave the whole seafront a quality that golden-hour sunshine simply couldn’t have matched.