The Ceredigion Coast Path was opened throughout in July 2008, funded by the European Union's Objective 1 programme for West Wales and the Valleys. Public rights of way along this coastline had existed for centuries in isolated segments. What the project did was link them - by creating new access where landowners agreed and existing routes failed - to make a single continuous walking corridor. In 2012, when the all-Wales Wales Coast Path opened from Chepstow on the English border in the south-east to Queensferry on the Dee in the north, the Ceredigion path became one of its constituent sections. Eight hundred and seventy miles of national coast path now use this stretch as their middle. At its southern end, by the bronze otter, the path crosses the tidal Teifi to meet the Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail at St Dogmaels.

The path divides naturally into eleven walkable sections, each accessible by road and short enough for a single day. From south to north: Cardigan to Mwnt, 11.7 miles. Mwnt to Aberporth, 5.3. Aberporth to Tresaith, 1.5. Tresaith to Penbryn, 1.6. Penbryn to Llangrannog, 1.7. Llangrannog to Cwmtydu, 5.5. Cwmtydu to New Quay, 3.8. New Quay to Aberaeron, 6.5. Aberaeron to Llanrhystud, 7.4. Llanrhystud to Aberystwyth, 10.6. Aberystwyth to Borth at Ynyslas, 9.9. The cumulative experience changes character every few miles. The cliffs above Mwnt are pasture meeting sea, with a tiny white-painted medieval church on the bluff. The path past Tresaith descends to a beach where a river falls over a cliff into the surf. The sweep north from Aberystwyth runs along a long flat coastal plain that ends in the strange world of Ynyslas dunes.

Four sections of the Ceredigion coastline are formally designated as Heritage Coast, the highest recognition of coastal landscape in Wales. Two areas within Cardigan Bay are marine Special Areas of Conservation, designated for the bottlenose dolphins, grey seals and porpoises that the bay supports in unusual numbers. Walkers report regular sightings: a fin breaking the swell offshore, a pair of seals hauled out at low tide on a rock platform, the constant chatter of choughs and kittiwakes against the cliff face. The path is not just a scenic line through Welsh agricultural country. It is a moving observation platform over one of the richest coastal ecosystems in the British Isles, and the dolphins do not seem to mind being watched.

Long-distance paths in Wales used to be the preserve of fit walkers with backpacks. The Ceredigion path has tried, slowly, to widen its accessibility. The Aberporth Inclusive Access Cliff Top Trail is a one-kilometre surfaced path built to wheelchair gradient standards. Re-routing between Aberporth and Tresaith has eliminated some of the worst stair sections. The Cardi Bach bus service ran along the coast from 2004 to 2014, specifically to ferry walkers between villages so they could do single-day sections without leaving cars at one end and another at the other. It started carrying a thousand passengers a year, peaked at 4,600, was expanded to year-round operation in 2012, and then lost its funding from the Rural Development Plan in September 2014 and closed. The northern end of the path, around Borth and Aberystwyth, is accessible by train on the Cambrian Line, which is one way to walk south from Aberystwyth and catch the train home. The path itself is undulating; some sections are challenging; the dolphins, on the right day, are worth every metre of climb.