Explore the database

The database currently contains details of 1002 pubs and other premises, 256 places and 209 people. There are also 329 photos and postcards, 80 pub signs, 672 newspaper articles, 253 maps and 104 documents. About 134 pubs are still open.

Use the options below to search the database.

N.B. Some pubs do not appear on the maps as we do not have a definite location for them.

Quick search

Browse the database Advanced search

Something not right? Got extra information? Please contact us and tell us more!

Details of pub: Hafod Arms, Devil's Bridge / Pont ar Fynach

Other names: Devil's Bridge Hotel
Address/Location: Devil's Bridge
OS Grid Ref: SN7405577058
Opened: c.
Closed: open 2016 Type: Inn
Summary: Devil's Bridge was on the main east-west road between Aberystwyth and England until about 1820 when the road from Llangurig through Ponterwyd and Capel Bangor (the A44) was improved by the Turnpike Trust.

In 1790, Thomas Johnes of Hafod built a 'little public cottage' at Devil's Bridge for the accommodation of travellers and tourists in 1792-1793. This was enlarged and called the Hafod Arms in 1795. In 1796 it was described as ‘a hotel lately built’. It was enlarged in 1803; a new hotel was built between 1814 and 1815 and was improved by the Duke of Newcastle between 1837 and 1839, and this, in turn, was replaced by the Hotel built by the Hafod Hotel Company in the 1860s. It became known as the Devil's Bridge Hotel, possibly after 1866 when the Hafod Hotel Company which also owned the Queen's Hotel, Aberystwyth, became bankrupt.

In summer time it was often full with visitors who had come to tour Wales and to visit the Devil's Bridge waterfalls and Hafod. Access to Hafod house and grounds was by ticket, which were available at the Hafod Arms.

On the last day of a previous landlord in 2016, a visitor to the Hafod Arms wrote:
You missed an experience at the Hafod Arms! Possibly the most desultory establishment in the world; faintly reminiscent of the finest days of Soviet Russia. We turned up rather hoping for a bowl of chips, and there was - not exaggerating! - nothing to eat except ONE packet of dry-roasted peanuts in the entire building, which we munched together over endless cups of tea (plenty of tea). Cavernous, yellow, grubby - and that was the salubrious tearoom bit. The bar (propped up by one sad bloke) smelled of urine and the whole thing was somehow crowned by the sight of Michael Gove on a massive screen. We drove back down the Ystywth valley and waxed pre-emptively nostalgic for its legendary grimness, soon to be obliterated by the new owners - it was the day they signed the contract.

The Three Bridges Bar is attached to the Hotel.

Notes: 1798
The Hafod Arms, a neat and comfortable house, built by Mr Johnes…. We were for some time in painful suspense whether or not we could procure beds for the night, as the house is full, and the apartments all occupied; at length, however, we were made easy by the information that a neighbouring gentleman would accommodate us at his villa, which stands about half a mile from the inn.
Warner, Richard, Rev (1763-1857), A Walk through Wales in Aug, 1797, (1798), p. 72

1805
Mentioned in auction notice "Mr. John Thomas, of the Devil's-Bridge inn, will shew the Premises..." Cambrian, 23 Feb 1805
1814
Considerable improvements have taken place at the Devil's bridge under Mr Johnes. The Bridge itself is quite a new object, and Mr Johnes has laid the foundation of a new spacious Hotel which will be completed next spring, the present house being found inadequate.
Carmarthen Journal, 2.9.1814

for more, see attachment

Additional information

URL:

Detailed history of the Devil's Bridge Inn / Hafod Arms () Date: URL: Detailed history of the Devil's Bridge Inn / Hafod Arms (https://sublimewales.wordpress.com/practicalities/accommodation/inns/hafod-arms-innhotel-devils-bridge/)

Document:

Advert for Devil's Bridge Hotel, 1875

Date: