29-493: Ardudwy ( Welsh pronunciation: [arˈdɨ̞duːɨ̯] ) is an area of Gwynedd in north-west Wales , lying between Tremadog Bay and the Rhinogydd . Administratively, under the old Kingdom of Gwynedd , it was first a division of the sub kingdom ( cantref ) of Dunoding and later a commote in its own right. The fertile swathe of land stretching from Barmouth to Harlech was historically used as pasture . The name exists in
58-507: A unitary authority , the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees . The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy . In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough
87-508: A few parishes of Denbighshire : Llanrwst , Llansanffraid Glan Conwy , Eglwysbach , Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan. The county was divided into five districts : Aberconwy , Arfon , Dwyfor , Meirionnydd and Anglesey . The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included
116-400: A map outlining Y Fro . In an article dated 12 November 1964, he wrote: Enillwn y Fro Gymraeg, ac fe enillir Cymru, ac oni enillir Y Fro Gymraeg, nid Cymru a enillir ('We win Y Fro Gymraeg , and Wales will be won, and unless Y Fro Gymraeg is won, it is not Wales that will be won'). The Welsh-speaking, Welsh identifying group is perhaps most distinctive and largely centred upon
145-563: A name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police . The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After
174-570: Is a county in the north-west of Wales . It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy , Denbighshire , and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon . The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes
203-512: Is a Welsh stronghold. Surrounding areas often included in the Bro , with a significant percentage of Welsh speakers, include parts of Neath Port Talbot ( Castell-nedd Port Talbot ), parts of western Powys, northern Pembrokeshire ( Sir Benfro ), the uplands of Conwy , the uplands and countryside of Denbighshire ( Sir Ddinbych ), Flintshire ( Sir y Fflint ) and parts of the district of Swansea ( Abertawe ). Education in Y Fro Gymraeg
232-599: Is now entirely within Clwyd. A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as
261-773: Is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed , at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until
290-562: The Mabinogi , Bendigeidfran holds court at Harlech , and his severed head returns there for seven years before it is taken on to Gwales . In the Fourth Branch, Lleu Llaw Gyffes is given Eifionydd and Ardudwy as his fief by Math fab Mathonwy . Lleu built his palace at " Mur y Castell " in Ardudwy. He reigned there before and after the usurpation of Gronw Pebr , whom he killed on the banks of
319-640: The Bro , and that it also included significant parts of western Powys and of the former county of Clwyd, but today the territory of the language as a majority language has shrunk. A substantial portion of four Welsh counties lies within Y Fro Gymraeg , which also includes other communities in surrounding counties. The four main counties with a majority of Welsh-speaking inhabitants are Gwynedd , Carmarthenshire ( Sir Gaerfyrddin or Shir Gâr in Welsh), Ceredigion and Anglesey ( Ynys Môn ), although even in these counties one cannot say that every town and village
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#1732851966447348-679: The Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site . During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire . In
377-401: The Isle of Anglesey . Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km ) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of
406-727: The Welsh language is used by the majority or a large part of the population; it is the heartland of the Welsh language and comparable in that respect to the Gàidhealtachd of Scotland and Gaeltacht of Ireland. It has no official government recognition. The importance of Y Fro Gymraeg to the rest of Wales was formulated over a few months by a Bangor college lecturer, Owain Owain , in January 1964, when he published in his Tafod y Ddraig magazine
435-645: The 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough , and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six. There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to
464-564: The 2021 census , 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh, while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census . It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales. The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5 and 15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011. The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001, from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though
493-514: The 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England. The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park , which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in
522-728: The River Cynfael. A holed stone in Ardudwy is still known as Llech Ronw (Gronw's Stone). Ardudwy is later associated with the 9th-century chieftain Collwyn ap Tango , the progenitor of the fifth of the Fifteen Noble Tribes of Gwynedd. He was Lord of Ardudwy and is a maternal ancestor of the Anwyl of Tywyn Family . Ardudwy was a core part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd above the River Conwy throughout
551-495: The early Middle Ages . After the conquest and subjugation of Gwynedd in 1283, the cantref was merged with Meirionydd to form the new county of Merionethshire . This situation was retained until 1974, when Welsh Local Government was reorganised and it became part of the reformed Gwynedd , where it remains to this day. 52°48′11″N 4°02′24″W / 52.803°N 4.040°W / 52.803; -4.040 Gwynedd Gwynedd ( Welsh: [ˈɡwɨnɛð] )
580-467: The former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough . The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire , as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council . As
609-641: The invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974. Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England . The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 . It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire , and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd ); and also
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#1732851966447638-580: The language . The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. The county contains much of Snowdonia ( Eryri ), a national park which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon ( Yr Wyddfa ; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB . Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including
667-489: The largest, Bala Lake ( Llyn Tegid ). The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales , which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I 's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech , which form part of
696-554: The modern community and village of Dyffryn Ardudwy . Ardudwy features prominently in Welsh mythology , the Triads of the Island of Britain heavily associates Ardudwy with the flooding of Cantre'r Gwaelod , stating that survivors of the flooding moved into the area in the time of Ambrosius Aurelianus , as well as surrounding areas that were previously uninhabited. In the Second Branch of
725-494: The north and west of Wales. This area is designated y Fro Gymraeg . The Welsh-identifying, non-Welsh-speaking group is most prevalent in the traditional south Wales area and labelled Welsh Wales. The British identifying non-Welsh speaking group dominates the remainder of Wales, described therefore as British Wales. – David Balsom (1985) A generation or two ago one could say that almost all of western Wales, from Anglesey to parts of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire , lay in
754-603: The past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine , meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni , an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían , 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish')
783-482: The proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%. The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh. Y Fro Gymraeg Y Fro Gymraeg ( literally ' The Welsh Language Area ' , pronounced [ə vroː ˈɡəmrɑːɨɡ] ) is a name often used to refer to the linguistic area in Wales where
812-461: The slate quarries. Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county. The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai , both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai . Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh . According to
841-429: The south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter. Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy. The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in
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