Harlech () is a seaside resort and community in

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

, north Wales and formerly in the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies on Tremadog Bay in the Snowdonia National Park. Before 1966, it belonged to the Meirionydd District of the 1974 County of Gwynedd. Its landmark Harlech Castle was begun in 1283 by Edward I of England, captured by

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

, and in the 1480s, a stronghold of Henry Tudor. Once on a seaside cliff face, it is now half a mile (800 m) inland. New housing has appeared in the low town and in the high town around the shopping street, church and castle. The two are linked by a steep road called "Twtil". Of its 1,447 inhabitants, 51 per cent habitually speak Welsh. The built-up area with Llanfair had a population of 1,762 in the 2001 census, over half of whom lacked Welsh identity, and the electoral ward which includes Talsarnau 1,997 in the 2011 census. The estimate in 2019 was 1,881.

Etymology

The exact derivation of the name "Harlech" is unclear. Some, mostly older sources derive it from ''Arddlech'', i. e. (high) + (rock), referring to the prominent crag on which the castle stands. Recent sources prefer a simpler derivation from the two Welsh words (fair/fine) and ''llech'' (slate/rock). As late as the 19th century some texts referred to "Harddlech" and "Harddlech Castle". This name appears in the mid-19th century translation of the ''

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...

'': "And one afternoon he was at Harddlech in Ardudwy, at a court of his. And they were seated upon the rock of Harddlech overlooking the sea." Contemporary documents from the time of the ''Mabinogion'' do not mention Harlech, referring only to Llywelyn building his castle "at Ardudwy".

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

in the same name includes Talsarnau community. The ward population at the 2011 census was 1,997.

Transport

Harlech railway station is served by the Cambrian Coast Line. The town contains Ffordd Pen Llech, a street down the rock spur to the north of the castle. It is the steepest signed, public paved road in the United Kingdom and possibly the steepest in the world, but see the section below.

Educational facilities

Ysgol Ardudwy is the county

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

for children aged 11–16. Ysgol Tanycastell is the town's primary school for children aged 3–11. The town was until 2017 the home of Wales's only long-term adult residential college, Coleg Harlech, also known as the "college of second chance". The premises remain in use as part of Adult Learning Wales – Addysg Oedolion Cymru.

Demographics

The 2011 census recorded 1,762 usual residents. The village is fairly Anglicised, with 48% of residents having been born in Wales and 46.9% born in England. Correspondingly, only 42.6% reported having a Welsh national identity.

Recreation

Theatr Harlech (formerly Theatr Ardudwy) is located on the Coleg Harlech campus and stages a varied selection of plays, music and films throughout the year. Other attractions in Harlech include its beach backed with

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

s and the Royal Saint David's Golf Club, which hosted its fifth British Ladies Amateur in 2009. The Rhinogydd (or Rhinogs) range of mountains rises to the east. In 2007, a

Lockheed P-38 Lightning The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive twi ...

(a World War II-era

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

) was rediscovered on Harlech beach. It has been described as "one of the most important WWII finds in recent history". The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) expressed an interest in salvaging the wreck of the

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

plane, known as the ''Maid of Harlech''. However, in August 2019,

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage s ...

, the Welsh government's historic environment service, gave the remains

scheduled A schedule or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things are i ...

status, making it the first legally designated military aircraft crash site in the UK to be protected for its historic and archaeological interest. The site is also controlled under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. The aircraft came down in September 1942 when it was on a gunnery practice mission. The pilot was Second Lt Robert F Elliott, 24, of Rich Square, North Carolina, who survived the crash, only to be reported missing in action a few months later. Harlech has a Scout hut, which acts as a base for outdoor recreational activities.

In traditional and popular culture

*A street in Harlech, Ffordd Pen Llech, was recognised in 2019 by the Guinness World Records as the steepest residential street in the world with a gradient of 1:2.67 (37.45%); however, Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, was then recognised with a gradient of 1:2.86 (35%). The steepness was determined by measuring consistently on the lower side of the street – the left or right, whichever was lower. It was later decided that measuring consistently in the middle of the street would be more accurate. This gave Baldwin Street a gradient of 34.8% and Ffordd Pen Llech one of 28.6%, so the title returned to Baldwin Street. *In the second branch of the '' Mabinogi'' (" Branwen, Daughter of Llŷr"), Harlech is the seat of Bendigeidfran, Branwen's brother and king of the Isle of the Mighty. *The song '' Men of Harlech'' is traditionally said to describe events during the seven-year siege of the castle in 1461–1468. * ITV Wales & West was formerly known as HTV/Harlech Television after its founder

Lord Harlech Baron Harlech, of Harlech in the County of Merioneth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1876 for the Conservative politician John Ormsby-Gore, with remainder to his younger brother William. He had previously re ...

Notable residents

In birth order: *

(c. 1359 – c. 1415), Welsh Rebellion leader, was the last Welshman to claim the title Prince of Wales. * Ellis Wynne (1671 in Lasynys Fawr – 1734), Welsh-language author and clergyman * Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931), poet,

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

and songwriter. He and a large family, including his son the poet

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

, spent summers at Erinfa, a large house north-east of Harlech. * George Davison (1854–1930), photographer *

Margaret More Margaret More or Moore may refer to: *Margaret Roper (1505–1544), née More, English writer and translator, daughter of Sir Thomas More *Margaret Clement (1508–1570), née Giggs, English noblewoman, adopted daughter of Sir Thomas More *Kate Bar ...

(1903–1966), composer, was born here. * Elinor Lyon (1921–2008), children's writer, retired here in 1975 with her schoolteacher husband.Introduction by Elinor Lyon, ''The House in Hiding'', Fidra Books, Edinburgh, 2006, p. v. * David Gwilym Morris Roberts (1925–2020), civil engineer, was born here. *

Mari Strachan Mari Strachan (born 1945) is a Welsh novelist and librarian. Her first novel, ''The Earth Hums in B Flat'' (Canongate, 2009), works on one level as a detective story, while on another dealing with the problems of growing up in a small Welsh vill ...

(born 1945), novelist and librarian, attended secondary school here. * Philip Pullman (born 1946), children's novelist, attended secondary school here.

Gallery

File:Harlech Castle Half Mast HMQM.jpg, Harlech Castle with flags at half mast after the death of

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

in 2002 File:SDJ Harlech Castle Gatehouse.jpg, Harlech Castle gatehouse File:Harlech Statue The Two Kings.jpg, The Two Kings (sculptor Ivor Robert-Jones, 1984) near Harlech Castle, Wales. Bendigeidfran carries the body of his nephew Gwern. File:Harlech-Low tide at Harlech.jpg, Harlech Beach at low tide File:Harlech College and castle.jpg, Harlech College with Harlech Castle in background

References

External links

Harlech Tourism Associationgeograph.co.uk
– photos of Harlech and surrounding area {{Authority control Towns in Gwynedd Elinor Lyon Aviation accidents and incidents locations in Wales