Minffordd (''roadside'' in

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

) is a village within the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

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 ...

. It is situated on the

A487 road The A487, officially the Fishguard to Bangor Trunk Road, is a trunk road in Wales that follows the coast from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in the south, to Bangor, Gwynedd, in the north. Route The road starts at a junction with the A40 in ...

between

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ffest ...

and

Penrhyndeudraeth Penrhyndeudraeth (; ) is a small town and community in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The town is close to the mouth of the River Dwyryd on the A487 nearly east of Porthmadog, and had a population of 2,150 at the 2011 census, increased from 2 ...

, and in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

of the latter. The village has two adjacent

railway stations A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...

, which are served both by Cambrian Line mainline train services and the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Ffestiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long an ...

. In 1992 the ''Ffestiniog Railway'' built a hostel to house volunteers working on the line. The stations are approximately quarter of a mile from the start of the mile-long drive to the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

hotel-village of

Portmeirion Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village, and is now owned by a charitable trust. The village is located in the co ...

. Nearby are the minor remains of a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

(known variously as Castell Deudraeth, Castell Gwain Goch and Castell Aber Iau). The castle was first recorded by

Giraldus Cambrensis Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taugh ...

(Gerald of Wales) in 1188. Garth Quarry was opened in 1870 to produce

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

sett A sett or set is a badger's den. It usually consists of a network of tunnels and numerous entrances. The largest setts are spacious enough to accommodate 15 or more animals with up to of tunnels and as many as 40 openings. Such elaborate setts ...

s for transport to developing towns and cities by the newly opened Cambrian Railways. The quarry now produces roadstone and railway ballast.

Ysbyty Bron y Garth Ysbyty Bron y Garth (English: Bron y Garth Hospital) was a health facility in Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, Wales. It was managed by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. History The facility has its origins in the Ffestiniog Union Workhouse ...

was built as the Ffestiniog Union Workhouse in 1839 at a cost of £3,200 and was intended to house 150 inmates. In recent years the buildings were used as a

community hospital A community hospital can be purely a nominal designation or have a more specific meaning. When specific, it refers to a hospital that is accessible to the general public, and provides a general or specific medical care which is usually short-term, ...

operated by North West Wales NHS Trust. In 2009 the hospital was replaced by

Ysbyty Alltwen Ysbyty Alltwen (English: Alltwen Hospital) is a health facility in Tremadog, Gwynedd, Wales. It is managed by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. History The facility was commissioned to replace the aging Ysbyty Bron y Garth in Penrhynd ...

Tremadog Tremadog (formerly Tremadoc) is a village in the community of Porthmadog, in Gwynedd, north west Wales; about north of Porthmadog town-centre. It was a planned settlement, founded by William Madocks, who bought the land in 1798. The centre of ...

. Part of the site houses over 400 lesser horseshoe bats. Minffordd is a thriving Welsh speaking village, where the language is used every day.

References

External links

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Minffordd and surrounding area
Villages in Gwynedd Penrhyndeudraeth {{Gwynedd-geo-stub