Wales Trivia
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60 free Wales trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Wales trivia quiz covers the country from every angle. The geography questions ask about Snowdon and its rack railway, the three national parks, Anglesey, the wettest spot in the UK, the four UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the 58-letter village name on the Menai Strait. The history strand runs from Hywel Dda's law code and Gruffudd ap Llywelyn's brief united kingdom through Edward I's conquest, Owain Glyndwr's revolt, the Tudor Acts of Union, coal and Cardiff's docks, Aberfan, and devolution to the Senedd. Then comes the culture: why the leek and the daffodil, the red dragon of Vortigern's prophecy, Saint David's dove and his last words, the chairing of the bard at the Eisteddfod, male voice choirs and the triple harp, the Mabinogion, Dylan Thomas, laverbread and cawl, S4C, and the Welsh-speaking colony in Patagonia. Sport gets its due too, from the Six Nations to Euro 2016 and the five Welsh clubs in the English football pyramid. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. For the neighbours, try our Scotland, Ireland and England quizzes.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Wales?
Cardiff
Cardiff, a city since 1905 and the largest in Wales with around 360,000 people, is also home to the Principality Stadium.
Q 02What is the Welsh-language name for Wales?
Cymru
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.
Q 03What is the highest mountain in Wales?
Snowdon
Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), at 1,085 metres, is the highest peak in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands.
Q 04Which mythical creature appears on the flag of Wales?
A red dragon
The red dragon on a green-and-white field, the Tudor livery colours, was officially recognised as the national flag of Wales in 1959.
Q 05Who is the patron saint of Wales?
David
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.
Q 06Which two plants are worn as national emblems on Saint David's Day?
The leek and the daffodil
The muddle is linguistic: the Welsh for daffodil, cennin Pedr, means 'Saint Peter's leek'.
Q 07Which prime minister popularised the daffodil as a Welsh emblem in the early 20th century?
David Lloyd George
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.
Q 08What is the title of the de facto Welsh national anthem, sung before rugby and football internationals?
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau
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.
Q 09What is the name of the devolved Welsh Parliament?
The Senedd
Created as the National Assembly for Wales in 1998, it took the name Senedd Cymru in May 2020.
Q 10Roughly what was the population of Wales at the 2021 census?
3.1 million
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.
Q 11Per the 2021 census, roughly what share of people in Wales aged three and over speak Welsh?
18%
That is 538,300 people; a separate 2022 survey put the figure nearer 30 per cent.
Q 12Which Welsh mountain range shares its name with the earliest period of the Palaeozoic era?
The Cambrian Mountains
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.
Q 13How many national parks were designated in Wales during the 1950s?
Three
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.
Q 21Which English king completed the conquest of Wales in 1283?
Edward I
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.
Q 22On what date in 1400 was Owain Glyndwr acclaimed Prince of Wales by his supporters?
16 September
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.
Q 23Which castle was the 1284 birthplace of Edward II, the first English Prince of Wales?
Caernarfon
Q 14What is the largest island off the Welsh mainland?
Anglesey
More than 50 islands lie off the coast; Anglesey and Pembrokeshire remain notorious for shipwrecks.
Q 15Crib Goch in Snowdonia is the wettest spot in the UK, averaging roughly how much rain a year?
4,473 mm
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.
Q 16Which bird of prey is described as a national symbol of Welsh wildlife?
The red kite
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.
Q 17The gwyniad, a fish unique to Wales, is found only in which lake?
Llyn Tegid (Bala)
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.
Q 18How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Wales have?
Four
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).
Q 19Which 10th-century king codified Welsh law at an assembly at Whitland?
Hywel Dda
His name means Hywel the Good; his law stressed compensating the victim rather than punishment by the ruler.
Q 20Who is the only king ever to have united the whole of Wales, ruling it from about 1057 to 1063?
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn
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.
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.
Q 24Which Tudor king's Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542 annexed Wales to England?
Henry VIII
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.
Q 25Per the Historia Brittonum, which king of the Britons was told to dig up two dragons beneath his fort at Dinas Emrys?
Vortigern
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.
Q 26In which year did the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru form?
1925
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.
Q 27At its 1913 peak, roughly how many people worked in the South Wales coalfield?
233,000
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.
Q 28In the 1966 Aberfan disaster, a colliery spoil tip slid onto what?
A junior school
Pantglas Junior School had just begun lessons; 28 adults also died and the inquiry blamed the National Coal Board.
Q 29In which year did the UK government first formally regard the current capital as the capital of Wales?
1955
Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George announced it in the Commons; only 76 of 161 Welsh local authorities had chosen Cardiff in a 1924 poll.
Q 30How many cities did Wales have after Wrexham gained city status in 2022?
Seven
Seven: Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Wrexham, Bangor, St Asaph and St Davids; Wrexham became the seventh in September 2022 under the Platinum Jubilee civic honours.