North Wales: Map

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Location of North Wales

North Wales ( ) is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales

, bordered to the south by Mid Wales

and to the east by England

.

It comprises the island of Anglesey

, the Llŷn peninsula and the Snowdonia

mountain range, together with the catchments of the Rivers Conwy

, Clwyd

and Dee with the River Dyfi

often said to form the southern boundary along part of its course.

However, northern Powys

is the same distance north as south Gwynedd

so that could also be classed as North Wales.

History

North Wales is steeped in history. In 1210, English King John invaded Gwynedd

a county of North Wales, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, one of the greatest of the medieval Welsh kings was forced to retreat to the mountainous areas to the West. When John found himself embroiled in struggles with his Barons and the Pope, Llywelyn was able to reassert his authority in North Wales. In 1216, Llywelyn went on to preside over a Welsh Parliament, a position confirmed at the Peace of Worcester in 1218, by Henry III.

World Heritage Sites

North Wales is home to five of the six UNESCO World Heritage sites in Wales, including:Caernarfon Castle

, Beaumaris Castle

, Conwy Castle

, Harlech Castle

and Pontcysyllte aqueduct

Political divisions

Traditionally, most of North Wales was covered by the kingdom of Gwynedd

.

The region is approximately made up of the following administrative areas:

the county borough of Wrexham (Wrecsam)
the county of Flintshire (Sir y Fflint)
the county of Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych)
the county borough of Conwy
the county of Gwynedd
the county of the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Môn)

Related Constituencies

North Wales was a European Parliament

constituency until 1999. Currently, there is an electoral region for the National Assembly for Wales with the name (used, in parallel with the smaller constituencies, to elect top-up members under the Additional Member System), which covers the North-East of Wales (specifically the entire area of the former pre-1996 county of Clwyd) as well as the Northern-most coastal areas of north-western Wales; the rest of North Wales is covered by Mid and West Wales .

Geography

The area is mostly rural with many mountains and valleys. This, in combination with its coast (on the Irish Sea

), has ensured that tourism is the principal industry. Farming, which was once the principal economic force in the area, is now much reduced in importance. The average income per capita of the local population is the lowest in the UK

and much of the region has EU Objective 1 status [69996].

The eastern part of North Wales contains the most populous areas, with more than 300,000 people living in the areas around Wrexham

and Deeside. Wrexham is North Wales' largest town, with a population of 68,000 in 2005. The majority of other settlements are along the coast, including some popular resort towns, such as Rhyl

, Llandudno

and Pwllheli

. The A55 expressway links these towns with the north of England

and the port of Holyhead

for ferries to Ireland

; few routes connect North Wales with South Wales

. There are two cathedral cities — Bangor

and St. Asaph

, and a number of mediaeval castles (e.g.: Criccieth

, Dolbadarn

, Harlech

, Caernarfon

, Beaumaris

, Conwy

Geology

North Wales has a very diverse and complex geology with precambrian schists along the Menai Strait

and the great Cambrian dome behind Harlech

and underlying much of western Snowdonia

. In the Ordovician period much volcanism deposited a range of minerals and rocks over the north western parts of Gwynedd whilst to the east of the River Conwy

lies a large area of upland rolling hills underlain by the Silurian mud-stones and grits comprising the Denbigh

and Migneint

moors.To the east, around Llangollen

,to the north on Halkyn

mountain and the Great Orme

and in eastern Anglesey are deep beds of limestone from which metals have been mines since pre-Roman times. Added to all this are the complexities posed by Parys Mountain

and the outcrops of unusual minerals such as Jasper and Mona Marble which make the area of special interest to Geologists.

Language

North Wales has a distinct regional identity. Its dialect of the Welsh language differs from that of other regions such as South Wales

in some ways; for example llefrith is used in most of the North instead of llaeth for "milk"; a simple sentence such as go upstairs now might be Dos i fyny'r grisiau rwan in North Wales, where it might be Cer lan y stâr nawr in South Wales. Colloquially, a person from North Wales (especially one who speaks with this dialect or accent) is known as a North Walian, or a Gog (from the Welsh gogledd, meaning "north").

Local media

Television is provided by BBC Wales throughout the area and by BBC North West in eastern border areas. Flintshire, Denbighshire and Greater Wrexham lie within the broadcast area of both ITV Wales and ITV Granada/ITV Central West, and S4C and Channel 4.
Independent local radio stations in this area include: 105.4 Century RadioMarcher Sound (Wrexham, Chester and Flintshire), Coast 96.3 (North Wales coast), Champion 103 (Gwynedd and Anglesey), and Radio Maldwyn (mid Wales; signal particularly strong in Greater Wrexham). Radio City 96.7, Dee 106.3, Signal One, Beacon Radio, Buzz 97.1 (a sister station of Marcher Sound) and other stations are very much accessible in the north-east.
No local BBC radio stations exist for North Wales, but the national services BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru serve much of the area. BBC Radio Merseyside, Manchester and Lancashire are strong in north eastern areas.
The Lord of the Rings fan film, The Hunt for Gollum, was filmed here. This was a non-profit film that helped convince the audience that they were in Middle-earth.

Sport

In September 2008 it was announced by the Welsh Rugby Union that a development team based in North Wales would be created, with a long term goal of becoming the fifth Welsh Region in the Celtic League. It was envisaged that this would both help the growth of the game in the area, and provide a larger pool of players for the Welsh national team to be selected from.