Pwllheli () is a market town and community of the

Llŷn Peninsula The Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn or , ) extends into the Irish Sea from North West Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the historic county of Caernarfonshire, and historic region and local authority area of Gwynedd. Mu ...

( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn) 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-western

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011 of whom a large proportion, 81%, are

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 ...

speaking. Pwllheli is the place where

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

was founded. It is the birthplace of the Welsh poet Sir Albert Evans-Jones (

bardic name A bardic name (, ) is a pseudonym used in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement. The Welsh term bardd ("poet") originally referred to the Welsh poets of the Middle Ages, who m ...

''Cynan''). Pwllheli has a range of shops and other services. As a local railhead with a market every Wednesday, the town is a gathering point for the population of the whole peninsula.

Etymology

The town's name means ''salt water basin''.

History

Donkeys outside a warehouse, Pwllheli (copy of jtoo001) NLW3363760

The town was given its charter as a borough by

Edward, the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...

, in 1355, and a market is still held each Wednesday in the centre of the town on 'Y Maes' (="the field" or "the town square" in English). The town grew around the

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befo ...

and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

industries, and the

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 ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

at Gimlet Rock ( cy, Carreg yr Imbill). The population in 1841 was 2,367. During the 1890s, the town was developed by Solomon Andrews, a

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

businessman. This work included the

promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cl ...

, roads and houses at West End. A tramway was built linking the town to Llanbedrog. The trams ran until 1927 when the section of track between Carreg-y-Defaid and Tyddyn-Caled was seriously damaged by a storm. Andrews ran the Cardiff Road section in 1928, and offered to sell the tramway to Pwllheli Corporation at the end of the season, but they did not take up his offer. He then sold the assets, and the Corporation removed the tracks during the winter of 1928/29.

Poet

Albert Evans-Jones Sir (Albert) Cynan Evans-Jones CBE (14 April 1895 – 26 January 1970), more commonly known within Wales by his bardic name of Cynan, was a Welsh war poet and dramatist. Early life Cynan was born in Pwllheli as Albert Evan Jones, the son of Ri ...

, who was an archdruid for the

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

and known by his bardic name 'Cynan', was born in Pwllheli, before he was an archdruid, he joined the war through the Welsh Student Company of the RAMC, serving in Salonika and France, initially as an ambulance driver and medic, later as the company's military chaplain. He was the son of the proprietor of the Central Restaurant in Penlan Street, Pwllheli.

Governance

Pwllheli Town Council consists of fifteen town councillors elected from the North and South wards. Pwllheli North and

Pwllheli South Pwllheli South ( cy, De Pwllheli) is one of the electoral wards in the town of Pwllheli, on the coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales. It elects representatives to the town and county councils. Description The ward covers the south of ...

are the county wards covering the town, which each elect one county councillor to

Gwynedd Council Cyngor Gwynedd ( en, Gwynedd Council) is the governing body for the county of Gwynedd, one of the principal areas of Wales. The council administrates internally using the Welsh language. History The county of Gwynedd was created in 1974 under ...

Education

* Ysgol Cymerau,

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

(Welsh medium) *

Ysgol Glan y Môr Ysgol Glan y Môr is a bilingual comprehensive school in the market town of Pwllheli in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The school serves a large part of the Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn). As of 2022, there were 495 pupils on roll at the sc ...

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) ...

(Welsh medium) Ysgol Glan y Môr was formed by the merger in 1969 of the former Pwllheli

Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

at Penrallt and the Frondeg

Secondary Modern School A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...

in Upper Ala Road, to form a

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

based at two separate sites in the town. The junior pupils (year 1 and year 2) were located at the Penrallt site and the senior pupils (year 3 and upwards) at a new complex in Cardiff Road. This new school was subsequently expanded to accommodate all pupils under the Ysgol Glan y Môr name. The Penrallt site was later redeveloped as the Pwllheli campus of

Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor (meaning in English "Meirion-Dwyfor College"), also known as CMD, is a college in , Wales with its main campus in . It serves the areas of and . It has a bilingual language policy and offers the opportunity to study most subjects through th ...

. The façade of the main building of the old grammar school was retained and incorporated into the design of the current college buildings. Thus the 'old school' is readily seen from the town square (Y Maes) as it has been since the former Pwllheli County School moved to Penrallt in the early 20th century. *

(Welsh medium)

Transport

Rail

Pwllheli railway station Pwllheli railway station is a railway station serving the small coastal town of Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales. It is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway. History In 1861 the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway was ...

is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway running to

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a popul ...

with services continuing to Shrewsbury and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. The station is operated and served by

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

. The rail link to

Caernarfon Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is ...

via the

Carnarvonshire Railway The Carnarvonshire Railway was a railway connecting Caernarvon railway station (terminus of the Bangor and Caernarvon Railway line from Bangor) with Afon Wen. History The Carnarvonshire Railway was absorbed into the LNWR in 1869. At the gro ...

was axed under the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

and closed in December 1964.

Road

Pwllheli is connected to the wider road network by the A497 to

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 the A499 to

. From there, major roads lead away from Gwynedd to the rest of Wales.

Buses

Bus services in the town are operated by

Arriva Buses Wales Arriva Buses Wales ( cy, Bysiau Arriva Cymru) is a bus operator providing services in northern Wales and Chester in northern England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus. History Crosville Motor Services was formed in 1919 and operated serv ...

and Nefyn Coaches and serve most of the town as well as the rest of the wider Llŷn Peninsula area. Clynnog & Trefor run services to

where connections can be made to Bangor. Pwllheli bus station is situated in the town centre.

Attractions

* Plas Bodegroes, formerly a Michelin starred

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

walesonline news
/ref> * Penarth Fawr a 15th-century house * Hafan y Môr, a former

Butlins Butlin's is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom. Butlin's was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families. Between 1936 and 1966, ten camps were built, including one in Ireland and o ...

holiday camp A holiday camp is a type of holiday accommodation that encourages holidaymakers to stay within the site boundary, and provides entertainment and facilities for them throughout the day. Since the 1970s, the term has fallen out of favour with term ...

now operated by Haven * Pwllheli Market * Neuadd Dwyfor - theatre and cinema located in Penlan Street Pwllheli has a section of the

Wales Coast Path The Wales Coast Path ( cy, Llwybr Arfordir Cymru) is a designated long-distance trail which follows, or runs close to, the coastline of Wales. Launched in 2012, the footpath is long and was heralded as the first dedicated coast path in the wor ...

along its shoreline.

Notable people

* Eleazar Roberts (1825–1912), a Welsh musician, translator, writer and amateur astronomer. * Owen Davies (1840–1929), a Welsh Baptist minister and writer. * Sir (Albert) Cynan Evans-Jones CBE (1895–1970), bardic name of ''Cynan'', was a Welsh war poet and dramatist. *

William Richard Williams William Williams may refer to: Art and literature * William Williams (artist) (1727–1791), artist and author of American novel ''Penrose'' * William Joseph Williams (1759–1823), artist who painted three presidents * William Williams (antiquary ...

(1896–1962), Principal of the

United Theological College, Aberystwyth The United Theological College located in Aberystwyth, in the county of Ceredigion in mid Wales, is a Grade II listed building which was the ministerial training college of the Presbyterian Church of Wales from 1906 to 2003 and an associate colle ...

from 1949 to 1962 * John Robert Jones (1911–1970), a Welsh philosopher. *

Hywel Williams Hywel Williams (born 1953) is a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arfon, previously Caernarfon, since 2001. He announced his intention to retire in 2022. Early life Williams was born in Pwllheli in 1953 ...

(born 1953), a Welsh Plaid Cymru politician, MP for Arfon, previously

, since 2001. * David Dawson (born 1960), artist, his paintings are realist in style and predominantly urban *

Gareth Pierce Gareth Pierce (born 19 February 1981) is a Welsh actor and musician who has appeared in various television series. In 2020, he began portraying Gavin Moss in BBC Radio 4's ''The Archers'' and became the second actor to play Todd Grimshaw in ...

(born 1981) a Welsh actor and musician

Arts

Pwllheli hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1925 and 1955, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1875.

Language

According to the

United Kingdom Census 2011 A Census in the United Kingdom, census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Inter ...

, 80% of the population spoke Welsh.

Sport and leisure

Pwllheli is home to

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team

Pwllheli F.C. Pwllheli F.C. ( cy, Clwb Pêl Droed Pwllheli) is a football club based in Pwllheli in North Wales. They play in the North Wales Coast West Football League The North Wales Coast West Football League is a football league in Wales, at tiers 4 a ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

team

Pwllheli RFC Pwllheli Rugby Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Rygbi Pwllheli) is a rugby union team from the town of Pwllheli, in Gwynedd, North Wales. Pwllheli RFC is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for RGC 1404. They currently compete in ...

and running club Llŷn Striders. There is a hockey club, Clwb Hoci Pwllheli, which is part of the rugby, cricket and hockey club. They play in white, red and green. Pwllheli is a hub for water sports, due in part to a marina, Pwllheli Sailing Club, and Plas Heli - the Welsh National Sailing Academy. The town has two beaches, South Beach and Glan-y-don. South Beach stretches from Gimlet Rock, across the Promenade and West End, towards

Penrhos Penrhos is derived from the Welsh words ''pen'' ("head" or "top") and ''rhos'' ("moorland"). It may refer to: ; Places *Penrhos, Anglesey, a village in Wales ** Penrhos Country Park (AKA Penrhos Coastal Park), a country park near Penrhos, Anglesey * ...

and Llanbedrog. Glan-y-don Beach is on the eastern side of the river mouth and runs for 3 miles (5 km) from behind the marina workshops and out towards Penychain (holiday camp). The town has a golf club on the Llŷn coastline.

Notes

External links

Official Website for Pwllheli

www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Pwllheli and surrounding area
{{Authority control Towns in Gwynedd