60 Fun Facts About Wales

What is the capital and largest city of Wales?

Cardiff, a city since 1905 and the largest in Wales with around 360,000 people, is also home to the Principality Stadium.

What is the Welsh-language name for Wales?

Cymru derives from the Brythonic combrogi, 'fellow-countrymen'; the Welsh call themselves Cymry, while the English name Wales comes from an Old English word for foreigners.

What is the highest mountain in Wales?

Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), at 1,085 metres, is the highest peak in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands.

Which mythical creature appears on the flag of Wales?

The red dragon on a green-and-white field, the Tudor livery colours, was officially recognised as the national flag of Wales in 1959.

Who is the patron saint of Wales?

Saint David (Dewi Sant), a 6th-century bishop who founded a monastery at what is now St Davids in Pembrokeshire, is commemorated on 1 March, his feast day.

Which two plants are worn as national emblems on Saint David's Day?

The muddle is linguistic: the Welsh for daffodil, cennin Pedr, means 'Saint Peter's leek'.

Which prime minister popularised the daffodil as a Welsh emblem in the early 20th century?

David Lloyd George, the Liberal prime minister of 1916–22 who grew up in Llanystumdwy, championed the daffodil; the leek nonetheless appeared on the 1985 Welsh £1 coin.

What is the title of the de facto Welsh national anthem, sung before rugby and football internationals?

Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ('Land of My Fathers') was written in Pontypridd in 1856 by Evan James, with the tune composed by his son James James.

What is the name of the devolved Welsh Parliament?

Created as the National Assembly for Wales in 1998, it took the name Senedd Cymru in May 2020.

Roughly what was the population of Wales at the 2021 census?

The 2021 census counted about 3.1 million people in Wales, roughly 5 per cent of the England-and-Wales total, with two-thirds living in the south.

Per the 2021 census, roughly what share of people in Wales aged three and over speak Welsh?

That is 538,300 people; a separate 2022 survey put the figure nearer 30 per cent.

Which Welsh mountain range shares its name with the earliest period of the Palaeozoic era?

The Cambrian Mountains and the Cambrian period both take their name from Cambria, Latin for Wales; the later Ordovician and Silurian periods are named after the Ordovices and Silures tribes.

How many national parks were designated in Wales during the 1950s?

Three: Snowdonia in 1951, the Pembrokeshire Coast in 1952 and the Brecon Beacons in 1957; the Gower became Britain's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956.

What is the largest island off the Welsh mainland?

More than 50 islands lie off the coast; Anglesey and Pembrokeshire remain notorious for shipwrecks.

Crib Goch in Snowdonia is the wettest spot in the UK, averaging roughly how much rain a year?

Crib Goch, a knife-edge ridge on the Snowdon massif, averages about 4,473 mm of rain a year, the highest long-term figure recorded anywhere in the UK.

Which bird of prey is described as a national symbol of Welsh wildlife?

The red kite, which by the early 20th century survived in Britain only as a few pairs in mid-Wales before recovering, is treated as a national symbol of Welsh wildlife.

The gwyniad, a fish unique to Wales, is found only in which lake?

The gwyniad, a whitefish stranded in Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) at the end of the last ice age, lives nowhere else; Llyn Tegid is the largest natural lake in Wales.

How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Wales have?

Four: the castles and town walls of Gwynedd (1986), the Blaenavon industrial landscape (2000), the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (2009) and the slate landscape of north-west Wales (2021).

Which 10th-century king codified Welsh law at an assembly at Whitland?

His name means Hywel the Good; his law stressed compensating the victim rather than punishment by the ruler.

Who is the only king ever to have united the whole of Wales, ruling it from about 1057 to 1063?

Gruffudd ap Llywelyn was killed by his own men in 1063 after Earl Harold Godwinson's campaign against him; Harold sent his head to Edward the Confessor and later married Gruffudd's widow Ealdgyth.

Which English king completed the conquest of Wales in 1283?

Edward I's campaigns of 1277 and 1282–83 ended Welsh independence; the Statute of Rhuddlan followed in 1284, and his castles at Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris form a World Heritage Site.

On what date in 1400 was Owain Glyndwr acclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters?

Owain Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales at Glyndyfrdwy on 16 September 1400, a date now marked as Owain Glyndwr Day; he was never captured and vanished from the record after 1412.

Which castle was the 1284 birthplace of Edward II, the first English Prince of Wales?

Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle on 25 April 1284, a year after his father began building it, and was created Prince of Wales in 1301, the first English heir to hold the title.

Which Tudor king's Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542 annexed Wales to England?

Henry VIII's Acts of 1535 and 1542 extended English law and county administration to Wales, gave it members of Parliament and made English the sole language of its courts.

Per the Historia Brittonum, which king of the Britons was told to dig up two dragons beneath his fort at Dinas Emrys?

Vortigern's tower kept collapsing until the boy Ambrosius (Emrys) revealed a pool beneath it holding two fighting dragons, the red standing for the Britons and the white for the Saxons.

In which year did the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru form?

Plaid Cymru was founded in August 1925 at the National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli; Gwynfor Evans won it its first Westminster seat at the 1966 Carmarthen by-election.

At its 1913 peak, roughly how many people worked in the South Wales coalfield?

Some 233,000 men worked the South Wales coalfield in 1913, digging about 56 million tons; Cardiff was then the world's busiest coal-exporting port.

In the 1966 Aberfan disaster, a colliery spoil tip slid onto what?

Pantglas Junior School had just begun lessons; 28 adults also died and the inquiry blamed the National Coal Board.

In which year did the UK government first formally regard the current capital as the capital of Wales?

Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George announced it in the Commons; only 76 of 161 Welsh local authorities had chosen Cardiff in a 1924 poll.

How many cities did Wales have after Wrexham gained city status in 2022?

Seven: Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Wrexham, Bangor, St Asaph and St Davids; Wrexham became the seventh in September 2022 under the Platinum Jubilee civic honours.

Which Welsh town has been the single site of the Royal Mint since 1980?

The Royal Mint began moving to Llantrisant in 1968 to strike the new decimal coinage, and its old Tower Hill site in London closed in 1980.

In 2008 Wales became the first nation in the world to be awarded what status?

Wales was declared the world's first Fair Trade Nation in June 2008 after meeting targets for Fairtrade goods in shops, schools and councils; Scotland followed in 2013.

Which river, the longest in Great Britain, rises on Plynlimon in mid-Wales?

The Severn rises on Plynlimon (Pumlumon) in Ceredigion at about 610 metres and runs some 354 km through Shrewsbury and Worcester to the Bristol Channel.

How many syllables are in the full long-form name of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll?

It has 58 characters but only 51 'letters', since ch and ll count as single letters in Welsh.

In which year did the rack railway up the country's highest mountain open?

The Snowdon Mountain Railway opened on 6 April 1896, a first day marred by a fatal derailment; it is the UK's only public rack-and-pinion railway, climbing 4.7 miles from Llanberis.

According to legend, which giant is buried under the summit cairn of Yr Wyddfa?

Rhita Gawr, a giant who wore a cloak made from the beards of kings he had beaten, was killed by King Arthur and buried under the summit cairn; Yr Wyddfa means 'the tumulus'.

The Italianate folly village of Portmeirion was designed by which architect?

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis bought the Aber Iâ estate near Penrhyndeudraeth in 1925 and built Portmeirion there until 1975, denying it was modelled on Portofino.

Portmeirion is most famous as 'the Village' in which 1960s TV series?

The Prisoner (1967–68), created by and starring Patrick McGoohan as Number Six, shot its Village exteriors at Portmeirion, which the series only credited in its final episode.

Which bird became Saint David's emblem after settling on his shoulder while he preached at Brefi?

A white dove, said to have landed on his shoulder as he preached at the Synod of Brefi, became Saint David's emblem; the ground beneath him rose into the hill at Llanddewi Brefi.

Saint David's monastic rule required his monks to pull the plough themselves and drink only what?

Water: David's monks, nicknamed 'Aquatici' or watermen, drank nothing else, and the rule forbade even saying 'my book' as a claim to property.

The two most important events at an eisteddfod are the crowning ceremony and what?

The chair goes to the best awdl in strict metre, the crown to the best free-verse pryddest; winners become prifardd, chief bard, for life.

The first documented eisteddfod was held in 1176 under Prince Rhys ap Gruffudd at which castle?

Rhys ap Gruffudd, the Lord Rhys, hosted the first recorded eisteddfod at Cardigan Castle at Christmas 1176, with contests for poets and musicians; the modern Gorsedd dates only from Iolo Morganwg's 1792 invention.

What does the word 'eisteddfod' literally mean?

Eisteddfod means 'sitting-together' or a session: eistedd is 'sit' and bod (mutated to fod) is 'be'; the plural is eisteddfodau.

Which traditional Welsh dish is made from an edible seaweed?

Laverbread (bara lawr) is boiled laver seaweed, Porphyra umbilicalis, often rolled in oatmeal, fried and served at breakfast with cockles and bacon.

What is cawl, the traditional Welsh dish?

Cawl is a slow-cooked stew, traditionally of lamb or bacon with leeks, potatoes and swede, counted as the national dish of Wales; cawl cennin is the leek-soup version.

The collection of medieval Welsh prose tales drawn from the White and Red Books is known as what?

The Mabinogion, prose tales preserved in the White Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest, reached English readers through Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of 1838–45 and includes Arthurian stories such as Culhwch and Olwen.

Who published the first complete Welsh translation of the Bible in 1588?

Bishop William Morgan published the first complete Welsh Bible in 1588, building on William Salesbury's 1567 New Testament; it helped fix the standard of literary Welsh.

Which Dylan Thomas work was first broadcast in 1954?

Under Milk Wood, Thomas's 'play for voices' set in the fictional town of Llareggub, was first broadcast by the BBC on 25 January 1954 with Richard Burton as First Voice, a few months after the poet's death.

Which Welsh-language television channel began broadcasting in 1982?

S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru) launched on 1 November 1982, a day before Channel 4, after Gwynfor Evans threatened a hunger strike to hold the government to its promised Welsh-language channel.

Which bowed six-stringed lyre is a traditional Welsh instrument?

The crwth, a bowed lyre with six strings, two of them off-board drones, was played in Wales into the 19th century; its name survives in 'crowd', an old English word for a fiddle.

A Welsh-speaking colony called Y Wladfa was founded in 1865 in which country?

Y Wladfa was founded in Argentina's Chubut valley by settlers who landed from the Mimosa in July 1865; the decimal counting system used in modern Welsh was devised in its Patagonian schools.

Which Welsh club beat Arsenal to win the FA Cup in 1927?

Cardiff City beat Arsenal 1–0 at Wembley on 23 April 1927 with a goal by Hughie Ferguson, the first time the FA Cup had been won by a club from outside England.

At which tournament did the Wales football team first reach a semi-final?

At Euro 2016 in France, Wales beat Belgium 3–1 in the quarter-final before losing 2–0 to eventual champions Portugal in the semi-final, its first at a major tournament.

Which four regional sides represented Welsh rugby union in the 2010s?

Cardiff Blues, the Dragons, the Ospreys and the Scarlets were the four regions after the Celtic Warriors folded in 2004; Cardiff Blues became Cardiff Rugby in 2021.

Which motto was added to the Royal Badge of Wales in 1953?

Y Ddraig Goch Ddyry Cychwyn ('the red dragon inspires action') was added to the 1953 royal badge and flag; the 2008 badge instead carries Pleidiol Wyf i'm Gwlad, 'true am I to my country'.

Which four regional police forces cover the country?

Dyfed-Powys, Gwent, North Wales and South Wales were all formed by mergers of county forces between 1967 and 1969; Dyfed-Powys covers the largest area of any force in England and Wales.

Which ship's 1859 hurricane wreck killed 459, the worst single loss in Welsh waters?

The Royal Charter, a steam clipper returning from Melbourne with gold, was driven onto rocks at Moelfre on Anglesey on 26 October 1859; the storm that sank her was named after her.

How many council areas has Wales been divided into for local government since 1996?

Wales has had 22 unitary 'principal areas' since the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 took effect on 1 April 1996, replacing eight counties and 37 districts.

In which town did the University College of Wales open in 1872?

The University College of Wales opened at Aberystwyth in October 1872 in a seafront building begun as a hotel; Cardiff (1883) and Bangor (1884) followed, and the three formed the University of Wales in 1893.

The red dragon of the Welsh flag is traditionally associated with which 7th-century King of Gwynedd?

Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon, who died around 682, is the king whose red dragon Henry Tudor claimed as an ancestral emblem and flew at Bosworth in 1485; the flag became official only in 1959.