At Pontarfynach, twelve miles inland from Aberystwyth, the little river Mynach drops through a deep, narrow gorge on its way to join the Rheidol. Across the gorge are three bridges, one built on top of another over the centuries, the oldest far below at the bottom of the stack. The English called the place Devil's Bridge from at least 1734, and there is a story to explain it.
An old woman, the tale goes, lost her cow, and at last spotted it grazing on the far side of the ravine, where she had no means of getting to it. As she stood there in distress, the devil appeared and offered to build her a bridge, on one condition: the first living creature to cross it would be his. She agreed. The bridge was thrown across the gorge in an instant, and the devil stood back to wait. The old woman took a crust of bread from her pocket and threw it over the bridge, and her little black dog shot across after it. "The dog's yours, sir," she said, and the devil, cheated, vanished.
Wirt Sikes, who told the Welsh version in 1880, pointed out that the same story is told of bridges at Frankfurt and at the St Gotthard pass, with a cockerel or other animal sent over first, and that such legends are much older than the bridges themselves. He noted, a little regretfully, that no superstition about crossing after dark seemed to have survived at Pontarfynach.
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