When Thomas Burgess was appointed Bishop of St David's in 1803, he saw a need for a college in which Welsh ordinands could receive a higher education.

Burgess intended to build his new college to train priests in Llanddewi Brefi which, at the time, was similar in size to Lampeter but ten kilometres from it and with an honoured place in the Christian history of Wales.

When Burgess was staying with his friend the Bishop of Gloucester in 1820, however, he met John Scandrett Harford, a wealthy landowner from Gloucestershire.

Burgess left St. David's in 1825 to become Bishop of Salisbury but work on the college continued, largely supervised by Harford.

The £16,000 required to erect the college had been raised from public donations, a government grant and highly publicised gifts, including one from King George IV.

In the 1950s the number of ordinands declined sharply and the college faced possible closure unless it could secure government funding.

Principal J.R. Lloyd Thomas did not spare himself in the fight for survival and, in 1960, after much negotiation, University College, Cardiff, agreed to sponsor Saint David's.

Following the appointment of Rowland Williams as vice principal in 1849, and inspired by the "muscular Christianity" movement, the college passed a rule in 1850 stating that students "should spend their spare time in healthful exercise rather than in clownish lounging about the shops or market place".

By this time, the college had begun shifting its specialisms and, whilst theology continued to be a strong point, students could choose from a much wider range of liberal arts subjects.

The university specialised in Theology, Religious Studies, philosophy, Classics, Anthropology, Archaeology, English and History.

[7] Further to this assessment, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales commissioned a further report which found "very real problems of leadership and management" at the university.

[11] In July 2010, it was announced that the Queen had approved an order granting a supplemental charter to Lampeter which would create the new University of Wales, Trinity Saint David and which would accept its first students in September 2010[12] at which time the University of Wales, Lampeter would formally cease to exist.

It fell into disuse; however after much restoration, it re-opened in 1991 as one of the main public rooms for meetings, dinners, conferences and for use by outside organisations.

The Old Hall also contains paintings of various principals, presidents, benefactors, vice-chancellors et al. including Bishop Burgess, Maurice Jones, Thomas Price, Llewelyn Lewellin, Edward Harold Browne, Keith Robbins and Brian Robert Morris.

The chapel was provided with a dedicated chaplain and services were held on Sundays and throughout the week as well as on saints' days and major festivals.

The Main Library was opened on 7 July 1966 by the then Chancellor of the University of Wales, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

The Arts Building was opened by Peter Thomas, Secretary of State for Wales on 4 October 1971, in time for it to house the new Geography department.

The Sheikh Khalifa Building, completed in 1997 and named after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a benefactor of the university, was the home of the Department of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies, one of the largest departments of its kind in the United Kingdom.

The Lloyd Thomas Refectory was the university's main dining hall, providing meals to guests and catered students and a regular Sunday carvery.

The Lampeter academic dress for the degrees it awarded in its own right differed from this as follows: Undergraduates wore a black stuff gown, with bell-sleeves, with the whole sleeve split open in front.

The year-round wearing of undergraduate academic dress ended in 1971 when Lampeter joined the University of Wales.

The university has a sports hall with badminton and squash courts, and a multigym with weight training equipment.

For outdoor sports, the university has tennis courts, a cricket field and facilities for football, hockey and rugby.

Lampeter has active fencing, netball, field hockey, football and rugby union teams, all of which played in the college colours of black and gold.

[15] The club's nicknames were Mad Pilgrims and Fighting Parsons, reflecting Lampeter's history of training clergy.

The secluded rural location lends the campus a special atmosphere and a very high proportion of the students were involved in clubs, societies and associations.

However for many who came there, this was a key attraction, with a high proportion of students getting involved with outdoor activities and local environmental projects.

Local country towns of Carmarthen and Llandeilo are nearby as well as the coastal resorts of Aberystwyth and New Quay.

The union building, on the banks of the Afon Dulas and extended in 1998, contains a student bar and small club, known as the Xtension, which hosts parties and live music events; the Union also has a CineClub showing films in the Arts Hall and Cliff Tucker Theatre.

Dr David Thomas (not to be confused with David SG Thomas, Professor at Oxford) became the first Professor of Geography at Lampeter in 1970 and, in 1971, Donald A Davidson and John A Dawson joined the staff as lecturers, ready to welcome the first Geography students to Lampeter in October 1971.