Waunfawr

The Marconi Company built a large high-powered longwave wireless telegraph transmitting station on the hilltop above the village in 1914 which worked in association with its receiving station at Tywyn. The station initiated commercial transatlantic wireless service from London to New York City in 1920. It replaced Marconi's transatlantic wireless service from Clifden, Ireland to Canada, after the Clifden station was destroyed in the Irish Civil War in 1922. The building was until recently used as a climbing centre called Beacon Climbing, which has since relocated to Caernarfon town. There are many recreational facilities available in Waunfawr, from playing snooker to playing football on the…

Waunfawr is in the Gwyrfai valley, on the A4085 road from Caernarfon to Beddgelert. It contains the Waunfawr railway station on the Welsh Highland Railway between Caernarfon and Porthmadog. Waunfawr was historically part of the parish of Llanbeblig, which also included the borough of Caernarfon. The Local Government Act 1894 directed that parishes could no longer straddle borough boundaries, and so the part of the parish of Llanbeblig outside the borough of Caernarfon was made a separate parish called Waenfawr. The official spelling was changed from Waenfawr to Waunfawr in 1957. Rural parishes such as Waunfawr were converted into communities in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The…