Pwllheli (Welsh: [pʊɬˈhɛli] ; listenⓘ) is a market town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Llŷn), in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011, which declined slightly to 3,947 in 2021; a large proportion (81%) were Welsh speaking.
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Pwllheli (Welsh: [pʊɬˈhɛli] ; listenⓘ) is a market town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Llŷn), in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011, which declined slightly to 3,947 in 2021;12 a large proportion (81%) were Welsh speaking.3 Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru was founded. It is the birthplace of the Welsh poet Sir Albert Evans-Jones (bardic nameCynan).
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 peninsula's population.
The town was given its charter as a borough by Edward, the Black Prince in 1355;5 a market is still held each Wednesday in the centre of the town on Y Maes ('the field', equivalent to 'the town square' in English).
This page is based on “Pwllheli” from English Wikipedia, (r1354835763) CC BY-SA 4.0 used under the license. The original authors are listed in its page history.
During the 1890s, the town was developed by Solomon Andrews, a Cardiff businessman. This work included the promenade, roads and houses at West End. The Pwllheli and Llanbedrog 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 1928/29.8
Poet Albert Evans-Jones, who was an archdruid for the National Eisteddfod of Wales and was known by his bardic name Cynan, was born in Pwllheli. Before becoming an archdruid, he joined the First World War effort 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 chaplain. He was the son of the proprietor of the Central Restaurant in Penlan Street, Pwllheli.
Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Pwllheli, at community (town) and county level, with both councils using Welsh as their primary language: Cyngor Tref Pwllheli ('Pwllheli Town Council') and Cyngor Gwynedd ('Gwynedd Council'). The town council is based at the Old Town Hall at 9 Penlan Street.910
The borough of Pwllheli was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. A community called Pwllheli was created instead, covering the area of the abolished borough. District-level functions passed to Dwyfor District Council, which was in turn replaced in 1996 by Gwynedd Council.1617
Ysgol Glan y Môr was formed in 1969 by the merger of the former Pwllheli Grammar School at Penrallt and the Frondeg Secondary Modern School in Upper Ala Road to form a comprehensive school based on two 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. 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.
Pwllheli is connected to the wider road network by the A497 to Porthmadog and the A499 to Caernarfon. From there, major roads lead away from Gwynedd to the rest of Wales.
Bus services on the Llŷn Peninsula are operated by Berwyn Coaches and Nefyn. Routes connect the town with Aberdaron, Caernarfon, Nefyn and Rhydlios. Pwllheli bus station is sited in the town centre.20
Capel Salem, purchased by potter Keith Brymer Jones and actress Marj Hogarth in 2022 and currently under renovation, which is documented in the Channel 4 series Our Welsh Chapel Dream.2324
Pwllheli has a section of the Wales Coast Path along its shoreline.
Pwllheli Harbour and Hafan Pwllheli
Pwllheli has a small harbour at the confluence of the Afon Erch and Afon Rhyd-Hir.25
Hafan Pwllheli is a marina built in Pwllheli Harbour during the 1990s.
Arts
Pwllheli hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1925, 1955 and 2023, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1875.
Language
According to the 2011 Census, 80% of the population spoke Welsh.26
It is a hub for water sports, owing in part to a marina; Pwllheli Sailing Club and Plas Heli (the Welsh National Sailing Academy) are based here.
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 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.
Notable people
Eleazar Roberts (1825–1912), musician, translator, writer and amateur astronomer
Owen Davies (1840–1929), Baptist minister and writer
Alice Gray Jones (1852–1943), known as Ceridwen Peris, writer, editor and activist; governor of Pwllheli County School
Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 719. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6. ↩
"A glance back at history with Luned". BBC. 17 June 2006. Archived from the original on 15 December 2004. Retrieved 21 February 2009. Another relaxing place in Pwllheli is Gimblet Rock. It is a rock which stands on the southerly side of the town. It was once a huge rock, but was used to make setts for the streets in England. ↩
The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol.III, (1847) London, Charles Knight, p.1019 ↩
Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire, Vol 1 - West, (1981), J. I. C. Boyd, pp 211-221, Oakwood Press, ISBN 978-0-85361-273-5 ↩
"Contact". Cyngor Tref Pwllheli. Retrieved 1 December 2024. ↩
"Old Town Hall". Cadw. Welsh Government. Retrieved 1 December 2024. ↩
Pwllheli (Welsh: [pʊɬˈhɛli] ; listenⓘ) is a market town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula (Welsh: Penrhyn Llŷn), in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011, which declined slightly to 3,947 in 2021;12 a large proportion (81%) were Welsh speaking.3 Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru was founded. It is the birthplace of the Welsh poet Sir Albert Evans-Jones (bardic nameCynan).
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 peninsula's population.
The town was given its charter as a borough by Edward, the Black Prince in 1355;5 a market is still held each Wednesday in the centre of the town on Y Maes ('the field', equivalent to 'the town square' in English).
During the 1890s, the town was developed by Solomon Andrews, a Cardiff businessman. This work included the promenade, roads and houses at West End. The Pwllheli and Llanbedrog 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 1928/29.8
Poet Albert Evans-Jones, who was an archdruid for the National Eisteddfod of Wales and was known by his bardic name Cynan, was born in Pwllheli. Before becoming an archdruid, he joined the First World War effort 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 chaplain. He was the son of the proprietor of the Central Restaurant in Penlan Street, Pwllheli.
Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Pwllheli, at community (town) and county level, with both councils using Welsh as their primary language: Cyngor Tref Pwllheli ('Pwllheli Town Council') and Cyngor Gwynedd ('Gwynedd Council'). The town council is based at the Old Town Hall at 9 Penlan Street.910
The borough of Pwllheli was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. A community called Pwllheli was created instead, covering the area of the abolished borough. District-level functions passed to Dwyfor District Council, which was in turn replaced in 1996 by Gwynedd Council.1617
Ysgol Glan y Môr was formed in 1969 by the merger of the former Pwllheli Grammar School at Penrallt and the Frondeg Secondary Modern School in Upper Ala Road to form a comprehensive school based on two 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. 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.
Pwllheli is connected to the wider road network by the A497 to Porthmadog and the A499 to Caernarfon. From there, major roads lead away from Gwynedd to the rest of Wales.
Bus services on the Llŷn Peninsula are operated by Berwyn Coaches and Nefyn. Routes connect the town with Aberdaron, Caernarfon, Nefyn and Rhydlios. Pwllheli bus station is sited in the town centre.20
Capel Salem, purchased by potter Keith Brymer Jones and actress Marj Hogarth in 2022 and currently under renovation, which is documented in the Channel 4 series Our Welsh Chapel Dream.2324
Pwllheli has a section of the Wales Coast Path along its shoreline.
Pwllheli Harbour and Hafan Pwllheli
Pwllheli has a small harbour at the confluence of the Afon Erch and Afon Rhyd-Hir.25
Hafan Pwllheli is a marina built in Pwllheli Harbour during the 1990s.
Arts
Pwllheli hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1925, 1955 and 2023, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1875.
Language
According to the 2011 Census, 80% of the population spoke Welsh.26
It is a hub for water sports, owing in part to a marina; Pwllheli Sailing Club and Plas Heli (the Welsh National Sailing Academy) are based here.
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 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.
Notable people
Eleazar Roberts (1825–1912), musician, translator, writer and amateur astronomer
Owen Davies (1840–1929), Baptist minister and writer
Alice Gray Jones (1852–1943), known as Ceridwen Peris, writer, editor and activist; governor of Pwllheli County School
Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 719. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6. ↩
"A glance back at history with Luned". BBC. 17 June 2006. Archived from the original on 15 December 2004. Retrieved 21 February 2009. Another relaxing place in Pwllheli is Gimblet Rock. It is a rock which stands on the southerly side of the town. It was once a huge rock, but was used to make setts for the streets in England. ↩
The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol.III, (1847) London, Charles Knight, p.1019 ↩
Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire, Vol 1 - West, (1981), J. I. C. Boyd, pp 211-221, Oakwood Press, ISBN 978-0-85361-273-5 ↩
"Contact". Cyngor Tref Pwllheli. Retrieved 1 December 2024. ↩
"Old Town Hall". Cadw. Welsh Government. Retrieved 1 December 2024. ↩