60 Fun Facts About Wales

What is the capital and largest city of Wales?

It was only formally recognised as the capital in December 1955, after Caernarfon had also vied for the title.

What is the Welsh-language name for Wales?

It comes from the Brythonic word combrogi, 'fellow-countrymen', and gave the Cambrian Mountains and the Cambrian period their names.

What is the highest mountain in Wales?

At 1,085 metres it is the highest peak in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands, and around half a million walkers climb it a year.

Which mythical creature appears on the flag of Wales?

The emblem goes back to Cadwaladr, king of Gwynedd around 655 AD, but the flag only became official in 1959.

Who is the patron saint of Wales?

His feast day, 1 March, marks his death in 589 and is not, despite repeated calls, a bank holiday.

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 is credited with popularising the daffodil as a Welsh emblem in the 19th century?

A 1916 report nonetheless gave preference to the leek, which went on to appear on British pound coins.

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

The title means 'Land of My Fathers'; it is also played at the opening of the Senedd.

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?

Two-thirds live in South Wales; the country accounts for about 5 per cent of the population of England and Wales combined.

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 gives its name to the earliest period of the Palaeozoic era?

The next two periods, the Ordovician and Silurian, are named after ancient Celtic tribes from the same area.

How many national parks does Wales have?

Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons and the Pembrokeshire Coast; the Gower was 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?

By contrast, Llwynon in Brecknockshire once managed just 2.7 hours of sunshine in the whole of January 1962.

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

Brown bears, wolves and wildcats died out in Wales during the Norman period; the polecat clung on there when it nearly vanished from Britain.

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

New Quay on Cardigan Bay, meanwhile, hosts the UK's only summer-resident bottlenose dolphins.

How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Wales have?

Edward I's castles in Gwynedd, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, the Blaenavon industrial landscape and the slate landscape of the north-west.

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?

He was killed after a surprise attack by Tostig, brother of the English king Harold, who then married his widow.

Which English king completed the conquest of Wales in 1283?

The Statute of Rhuddlan the following year ended Welsh independence and his castles in Gwynedd are now a World Heritage Site.

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

The date is now marked as Owain Glyndwr Day; he was never captured and vanished from the record in 1412.

Under what name does Owain Glyndwr appear in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1?

In Welsh tradition he became a 'Son of Destiny' folk hero alongside King Arthur and Cadwaladr.

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

The Acts gave the Welsh parliamentary representation and formally fixed the border from the Dee to the Wye.

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

Ambrosius prophesied that the red dragon of the Britons would push the white dragon of the Saxons back into the sea.

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

The Welsh language society, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, followed in 1962.

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

They dug 56 million tons of coal that year, and Cardiff was briefly the largest coal-exporting port in the world.

The 1966 Aberfan disaster killed 116 children when 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 does Wales have?

Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Wrexham, Bangor, St Asaph and St Davids; Wrexham was the newest, in September 2022.

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

Welsh banks issued their own notes in the 19th century; the last one closed in 1908.

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

Two years later it also became the UK's first all-digital television nation.

The village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is on which island?

The long form was cooked up in the 19th century to lure tourists; it is purported to be the longest place name in Europe.

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?

It is the only public rack-and-pinion railway in the UK, running 4.75 miles from Llanberis to the summit.

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

One version says King Arthur killed him; the Welsh name Yr Wyddfa came to mean 'burial cairn'.

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

He built it between 1925 and 1975 and always denied it was modelled on Portofino.

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

Siouxsie and the Banshees later filmed a spoof, 'The Laughing Prisoner', there.

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

The ground under his feet is said to have risen into a hill, where the village of Llanddewi Brefi now stands.

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

That earned them the nickname 'watermen'; even saying 'my book' counted as an offence against the ban on possessions.

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?

The modern format owes more to an 18th-century revival and Iolo Morganwg's invented druidic Gorsedd.

What does the word 'eisteddfod' literally mean?

It is built from eistedd, 'sit', and fod, 'be'.

Which traditional Welsh dish is made from an edible seaweed?

It is often served at breakfast with cockles and bacon; the seaweed is Porphyra umbilicalis.

What is cawl, the traditional Welsh dish?

Cawl cennin is the leek-soup version; despite the tradition, chicken tikka masala is now the country's favourite dish.

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

Lady Charlotte Guest's 19th-century translation brought the stories, which include early Arthurian material, to English readers.

Who in 1588 became the first person to translate the Bible into Welsh?

Daniel Owen's Rhys Lewis, in 1885, is credited as the first novel written in Welsh.

Which Dylan Thomas work was first broadcast in 1954?

Thomas was the centre of Swansea's Kardomah Gang, an intellectual circle that also included the painter Alfred Janes.

Which Welsh-language television channel began broadcasting in 1982?

Since the digital switchover it has broadcast exclusively in Welsh, having once shared English content with Channel 4.

Which three-stringed instrument is a traditional Welsh instrument alongside the crwth and the pibgorn?

Wales, 'the land of song', is also famous for the male voice choirs that grew out of 19th-century chapel choirs.

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

Around 5,000 people in the Chubut valley are thought to still speak Patagonian Welsh, which even gave Wales its decimal counting system.

How many Welsh clubs play in the English football league system?

Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County, Wrexham and Merthyr Town; Wales has run its own Welsh Premier League since 1992.

At which tournament did the Wales football team achieve its best-ever finish, reaching the semi-finals?

Rugby union, by contrast, is seen as the real symbol of Welsh identity, and Wales hosted the Rugby World Cup in 1999.

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

Five professional sides replaced the traditional clubs in 2003 and were trimmed to four a year later; Cardiff Blues became Cardiff Rugby in 2021.

Which motto has appeared on the Royal Badge of Wales since 1953?

It means 'the red dragon inspires action'; 'Cymru am byth' ('Wales forever') is the popular alternative.

Which four regional police forces cover the country?

Wales has five prisons but no women's prison; female inmates are held in England.

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

More than 110 ships were destroyed off Wales in that storm; the Sea Empress was the 1996 oil spill.

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

These 'principal areas' deliver all local government services; Wales also elects 32 MPs to Westminster.

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

Cardiff and Bangor followed, and the three colleges joined in 1893 to form the University of Wales.

The red dragon emblem has been used since the reign of which 7th-century King of Gwynedd?

The dragon flag itself only became Wales's official flag in 1959.