Lampeter is a small market town

Lampeter is a small market town with a population of 3,000, boosted by a further 1,000 university students at the University of Wales.

 

We think it is a quaint town with an old fashioned atmosphere.  It has its share of academics, and ancient hippies of the peace and love variety.

 

There are plenty of healthy food shops with The Organic Food Company, Mulberry Wholefoods and a butcher providing local meat.  There is also a large CO-OP supermarket.

 

There are some excellent DIY and hardware shops and a gun and sporting goods shop.

 

The needlework fraternity will enjoy The Welsh Quilt Centre and Calico Kate’s.

 

Trinity Saint David's University College in Lampeter, the oldest degree-awarding institution in Wales and England after Oxford and Cambridge.  It was founded by Royal Charter in 1822. Until the 1970s it was a centre for religious training for priests. It still has a strong theology department. Lampeter is the smallest university town in the UK with around 1,500 students.

 

Lampeter University's central building, based on an Oxbridge quadrangle was designed by C. R. Cockerell.

 

The university's rugby team was Wales' first, having been formed in 1850 by Rowland Williams after he brought the game from Cambridge.

 

The Romans once mined for gold at Pumpsaint, near Lampeter at a site Dolaucothi Gold Mines, now managed by the National Trust and open to visitors who can try their hand at panning for gold.

 

In the eighteenth century Lampeter was an important gathering place for the Drovers who gathered herds of livestock to be walked all the way to the markets of southeast England.

 

Nearby Long wood Community Woodland provides excellent dog friendly walking to today’s walkers and their animals.