New Quay (Ceinewydd) is a small harbour town of pastel terraces stacked up the hillside above a sandy beach, about halfway along the curve of Cardigan Bay. It was built on shipbuilding and the coastal trade; today it lives on summer visitors and on the bottlenose dolphins of Cardigan Bay. Cardigan Bay has one of the largest resident populations in Britain, and they are regularly seen from the harbour wall itself.
The boat trips out of the harbour are the reason most people come. They range from an hour along the coast to longer runs offshore, and the operators work under a code of conduct designed to keep from disturbing the animals. Grey seals and harbour porpoises are common too. On shore, a cliff path heads north to Bird Rock, where seabirds nest on the ledges.
Dylan Thomas lived here briefly at the end of the Second World War. The town is one of the places said to have gone into the making of Llareggub in Under Milk Wood, and there is a Dylan Thomas trail around the pubs and lanes he knew.
