Capel Bangor

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Many thanks to the Vale of Rheidol Railway for facilitating this camera's location. This camera is capitally funded by Aberystwyth University. The River Rheidol is a river in Ceredigion, Wales, 19 miles in length. The source is Plynlimon. Receiving an average annual rainfall of 40 inches, Plynlimon is also the source of both the Wye and the Severn. The Rheidol rises in the headwaters of the Nant-y-moch Reservoiron the western flanks of Plynlimon. After flowing south to Ponterwyd on the increasingly deep valley, then southwest through Welsh Oak ancient woodland, it veers westwards to its confluence with the Afon Mynach, at Devil's Bridge, Ceredigion (Welsh: Pontarfynach, lit. 'bridge on the Mynach') and a spectacular waterfall. The river continues passing the abandoned workings of the Cwm Rheidol lead mine; one of many other metal mines in the valley – a source of extracted metal pollution of the river – and flows westwards before its confluence with the Afon Ystwyth and the estuary at Aberystwyth to drain into Cardigan Bay. In the late 1960s, when the mine was closed, a major blowout of water contained in an adit coloured the whole river an ochre orange colour and greatly added to the concentrations of lead and zinc in the river. Today, management of water still draining from the mine is by the use of constructed wetlands. Previous management had included a limestone filter bed installed in the 1960s and now redundant. The filter bed is still in place and can be seen from the road.