Gwynedd

Gwynedd (Welsh: [ˈɡwɨnɛð]) is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey. Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and an estimated population of 120,813 in 2024. Bangor and Caernarfon are both in the north of the county, on the Menai Strait. The county's south-west coast is part of Cardigan Bay, and the towns of Pwllheli, Porthmadog, Barmouth, and Tywyn lie on it. Inland towns include Bethesda in the north, Blaenau Ffestiniog in the centre, and Bala in the east. Gwynedd is a heartland of the Welsh language; at the 2021 census, 64.4 per cent of the population reported being able to speak it, the highest percentage of Welsh local authority. The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. The county contains much of Snowdonia, or Eryri, which occupies most of the centre and south of the county and has been designated a national park. The northern part, shared with Conwy County Borough, contains all 15 mountains in Wales with a height of over 3,000 feet (910 metres). These include Snowdon, or Yr Wyddfa, which at 3,560 feet (1,090 m) is Wales' highest mountain. The mountains enclose several lakes and reservoirs, and the largest lake in Wales, Llyn Tegid, lies in the east. In the west, the Llŷn Peninsula separates Tremadog Bay from the wider Irish Sea and has been designated a national landscape for its scenic coastline. Several of the county's rivers discharge into the bay, having risen in Snowdonia, and its coast is indented by the estuaries of the Glaslyn and Dwyryd, Mawddach, and Dyfi. The la