Every Wednesday, stalls run the length of Maengwyn Street selling artisan bread, garden plants, second-hand clothes, jewellery and Indian food. The market has done this for over 730 years, under a Royal Charter granted by Edward I in 1291 that specified "a market at Machynlleth every Wednesday for ever and two fairs every year." So far, forever is holding up.
The street it fills is the town's main artery, lined with independent shops. At number 35, Laura Ashley opened her first shop in 1961. A few doors along stands the Owain Glyndŵr Centre, the Parliament House, Grade I listed and largely fifteenth-century, where in 1404 Glyndŵr was crowned Prince of Wales in front of envoys from Scotland, France and Spain. Inside are four large mural panels painted between 1912 and 1914 by the Scottish artist Murray Urquhart, covering scenes from Glyndŵr's life. The town claims to be the ancient capital of Wales. The title is unofficial, but the parliament was real.
Also on Maengwyn Street is Royal House, a sixteenth-century merchant's house, timber-framed inside and stone outside, with two massive chimney stacks. Its timbers were felled between 1559 and 1561, which makes local tradition slightly awkward: it claims Dafydd Gam was imprisoned here in 1404, roughly a century and a half before the walls existed.
For a pub, the Wynnstay on Heol Maengwyn is the surprise. A former coaching inn, it now runs a stone-baked pizzeria, cooking four at a time, most around £9.95, one Tripadvisor review titled "Unexpected prize pizzeria." Head chef Gareth Johns cooks to Slow Food principles and sources Welsh produce from within fifty miles; the four guest beers are Welsh too, from Cader Ales in Dolgellau and Monty's in Montgomery. There's a small quiet bar and a back room called the Cwtch with a log fire.
The White Lion on Heol Pentrerhedyn is the other option — original oak beams, an inglenook fireplace, a cobbled forecourt, and a large garden that hosts a beer festival on the late May bank holiday. Daily specials start from £5. One review called it "An honest little place."
Walkers use the town as an anchor. Glyndŵr's Way, a 135-mile National Trail, has its western point here, and many start or finish at Machynlleth to split a week's walking in two. Visit Wales describes the route's "views across the Dyfi Valley to Cader Idris' brooding hulk, and the Berwyn Mountains that lift out of farmland ahead." Sections of the Wales Coast Path meet here too. The town sits in the Dyfi Valley within the UNESCO Dyfi Biosphere.
Three miles north is the Centre for Alternative Technology, an eco-centre built in a former slate quarry, with renewable energy displays and experimental green buildings. The railway station is in the town, on the Cambrian Line, with Transport for Wales trains to Aberystwyth, Newtown and Shrewsbury. The T2 bus runs to Aberystwyth and Bangor.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote parts of Led Zeppelin III at a cottage nearby. The town is twinned with Belleville, Michigan.