The Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, along with the pleasure grounds on Constitution Hill, was laid out in 1895-6 by the Aberystwyth Improvement Company (see nprn 407547). The funicular railway climbs 130 metres on a 1 in 2 gradient, steeper in the upper part, from the ornate red brick lower station, dated 1896, to the concrete and corrugated iron upper station. It was the longest funicular railway in Britain until the Cairngorm Mountain Railway opened in 2001.

The two carriages, each designed to hold thirty people, were originally powered by a water balance system. The water was pumped up from a reservoir in the lower station to the tanks in the carriages at the upper station by steam engine. The system was electrified in 1921. There were four separate braking systems. The Cliff Railway continues to operate using electricity.

Sources include: Jones in Ceredigion VIII.4 (1979), 408-13; Association for Industrial Archaeology: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Mid-Wales, 1984.

RCAHMW, 15 June 2011.