Experts name Wales' prettiest towns and say there is stiff competition for the ugliest

Experts have named what they say are the UK’s prettiest and ugliest towns and places in Wales are on both lists. With 1,250 towns in the UK the Telegraph asked experts to give their verdict on the most and least beautiful and said there was "stiff competition" in the ugly category in Wales.

A total of 21 towns are ranked on the pleasantness of their shop fronts, historic architecture, low traffic/litter, viewpoints and greenery, culminating in a score out of 50. Two in Wales are on the prettiest list and one is rated among the ugliest in the UK.

Crickhowell is ranked sixth prettiest out of 21 and St David's (strictly speaking a city) 12th out of 21 while Merthyr Tydfil is the sixth ugliest of seven at the bottom of the list. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter

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Here are the Telegraph verdict's of Wales' prettiest and ugliest towns:

Prettiest:

Crickhowell

Overall score 42/50

Shop fronts 8/10

Historic architecture 8/10

The Telegraph lists this beautiful town in Monmouthshire under the old “Brecknockshire” rating it sixth prettiest in the land with 42/50 points.

The paper says: “If you were ever to ditch the day job and bolt for the hills, Crickhowell is where you might hope to land. In a country jangling with pretty towns, this corker in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (the Brecon Beacons) has the edge.

“It’s a little bubble of nostalgia, with quaint Georgian looks, a butcher, baker and smokery, indie bookshop (called book-ish), cracking historic pub (The Bear), and tearooms perfect for cake after a muddy stomp in the rain-bashed heights. And what heights they are. Local word has it the patchwork hills rising above Crickhowell inspired Tolkien’s The Shire and that Crickhowell inspired the Hobbit settlement of Crickhollow.

“The great fins of the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons sweep into the distance and a 17th-century stone bridge (12 arches on one side, 13 on the other) leaps over the River Usk.”

St David’s, Pembrokeshire

St David's Cathedral is a popular visitor attraction — St David's Cathedral (Image: Mirrorpix)

Overall rating 44/50

Shop fronts 9/10

Historic architecture 8/10

The Telegraph expert’s verdict: “In a particularly fetching spot on the Pembrokeshire Coast, St Davids is technically Britain’s tiniest city (population: 1,600) and an instant heart-stealer. So for the purpose of this study, I am pinching it as a town.

“Pilgrims have flocked for centuries to the shrine of the country’s patron saint in its whopping cathedral, a medieval marvel hewn from local purple stone. The town itself is a beauty: all pastel paint jobs, cute pubs and tearooms, with the easy vibe that makes you long to move to the seaside pronto. And the restaurants are right up there with Wales’ best: Blas at Twr Y Felin, the forage-focused Really Wild Emporium.

“But it’s the location that’s the clincher. Here you’re right on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, with trails clambering over stile and gorse-clad cliff to surf-smashed coves, prehistoric standing stones and the mile-long golden smile of Whitesands Beach.

“The four-mile ramble to St Davids Head is a knockout, with broad views out across an island-speckled sea, where dolphins, Atlantic grey seals and harbour porpoises splash.

And the ugliest.....

The Telegraph ranks Merthyr Tydfil among its ugliest towns in the UK.

Merthyr is one of the towns receiving funding — Merthyr Tydfil (Image: Richard Swingler)

Overall ranking 15/50

Shop fronts 2/10

Historic architecture 4/10, Wales

The Telegraph’s verdict:

“There’s stiff competition in South Wales with the likes of Port Talbot, Newport and Rhondda Cynon Taf, but in polls of the country’s most deprived and ugly towns, poor old Merthyr Tydfil nearly always pops up. In a basin at the northern head of the Taff Valley, Merthyr (muh-tha) is somewhere that many passers-by give a wide berth-a, with its urban sprawl of industrial and retail parks, heavily trafficked roads and roundabouts, and high levels of crime and joblessness.

“Pretty it isn’t, but neither is it relentlessly bleak; the hills and ridges that rise above it lend a dash of green and Cyfarthfa Castle – a castellated mansion and art gallery – is its cultural saving grace. And there’s tons of cool stuff on the doorstep: the UK’s biggest mountain bike park, Zip World Tower (the world’s fastest seated zip-line across an open-cast coal mine) and, of course, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.