Location and Amenities
The original village was a small hamlet, one mile east of Aberystwyth town centre, but the building of extensive Art Deco style semi-detached social housing from the 1920s on transformed it. It lies in the shadow of the Celtic Iron Age hill fort of Pen Dinas, and between the River Ystwyth and the River Rheidol. Penparcau is part of the only UNESCO Biosphere reserve in Wales, the Dyfi Biosphere.
There is an Anglican church named after the Saint Ann, a derelict Roman Catholic church named after the Welsh Martyrs, two Methodist chapels and a Quaker meeting house. The Tollgate pub is named after the original tollgate that stood on the old toll road at the top of Penparcau and is now in St Fagans National History Museum near Cardiff.
Penparcau has its own woodland, Coed Geufron run by the Woodland Trust and its own police station. Other amenities include a post office, two small supermarkets, a garage, holiday park and hotel and until recently two fish and chip shops, one of which has a reputation as one of the best in the area. It also, until recently, had its own travel agent, which closed down in late 2007.
Penparcau once played a part in the Transition Town movement in Wales when it hosted an "Alternative Energy and Transport Festival" in Neuadd Goffa, attended by the local MP and mayor. At the bottom of the valley, just below Penparcau, is a new Welsh Assembly Government office building, designed to house more than 550 staff.
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