Two Ceredigion museums came out on top in a poll to find the favourite museums to celebrate the rich and varied selection of museums in Wales.

WalesOnline asked readers to vote for their favourite National museum and non-national museum in the lead up to the Museums Association’s annual conference held in October 2014.

Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth was in the top 10 museums alongside the Winding House in New Tredegar, Chepstow Museum, Abergavenny Museum, Swansea Museum, Porthcawl Museum, and Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

Carrie Canham, Curator of Ceredigion Museum, said:

“We’re absolutely delighted to be in the top 10, the fact that people took the time to vote shows we have strong support in our community. This has been a terrific year for museums in Wales; we’ve had our first ever Welsh Museums Festival, which was a great success, and Cardiff hosting the Museums Association Conference to over 700 international delegates gave us the opportunity to show the world the importance of Welsh heritage and how well our museums are preserving and promoting it.”

The Internal Fire Museum of Power near Tanygroes, Ceredigion powered ahead of the rest to be voted the most popular museum, not including the national museums, in Wales.

The museum beat off strong competition from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities who came a close second and the Doctor Who Experience, in Cardiff Bay, who came third.

Paul Evans, Internal Fire Museum of Power Curator said:

“Internal Fire Museum of Power is a working museum specialising in internal combustion engines and about to start a new Steam Hall which will contain the largest working steam engines in Wales. The museum has full Accreditation with the Arts Council and is a registered charity run entirely by volunteers.

The volunteers come from as far away as Holland, Germany and even Australia and over the last 10 years have produced an award winning museum that attracts visitors from all over the world to Ceredigion.

We were pleasantly surprised by the number of people who announced they had been to the WalesOnline website and voted for us.

The museum has a good online presence and provides material to collectors and institutions worldwide but it was still a nice surprise how many people read the post and voted, so thank you to everyone.”

Councillor Gareth Lloyd, with responsibility for Economic and Community Development, said:

“It is excellent that The Internal Fire Museum of Power has won the nation’s favourite in the non-national museum poll and that Aberystwyth is in the top 10.

This is a good example of the different attractions we have to offer in Ceredigion which I hope will appeal to visitors and residents alike.”

The winner of the favourite national museum was St Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff.