Armchair Travel Destination - Wales

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

Interesting Facts

 Wales is called Cymru in Welsh.

 Wales has a population of 3,188,203 by 1st July of 2018

 English and Welsh are the two official languages of Wales. Welsh is a Celtic based language that has seen a resurgence in recent times and is now spoken by over 20% of the population.

 Cardiff is the largest city and also the capital of Wales. Other major cities in Wales include Swansea and Newport in the south and Wrexham to the north of the country.

Snowdon  Snowdon (or Yr Wyddfa), is the highest peak in Wales at 1085 m (3560 ft).

 42% of the South and West Wales coastline is designated as 'Heritage Coast'.

 Wales was ruled by England from the year 1284 and officially incorporated into England by the 'Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542' or 'Act of Union'. To symbolise this unification of the two countries since 1301, the Crown Prince of England has been referred to as the Prince of Wales.

A huge green courtyard is one of the highlights of Caernarfon Castle.

 The country of Wales is said to contain more castles per square mile than any other country in the world.

 Wales is often termed "the land of song" the country is known for its harpists, male choirs, and solo artists.

 Lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking owing to the amount of sheep farming in the country. However, international cuisine is very popular with chicken tikka masala among the favourite dishes.

 Although football (soccer) is the more popular sport in Northern Wales, Rugby Union is seen as the national sport and is passionately played and followed by most of the country.

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

Cardiff's Millennium Stadium  Cardiff's Millennium Stadium has the largest retractable roof of any sports stadium in the world.

 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield is generally credited with inventing lawn tennis when in 1873 he designed and patented a similar game for his guests to play on his estate of Nantclwyd in Llanelidan Wales.

Emblem of Wales

 The original national emblem of Wales was the Leek (Cenhinen), over the years this was often confused with a very similar Welsh word Cehhinen Bedr which means daffodils and so the daffodil was adopted as a second emblem of Wales.

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

The Queen and her Corgis

 The corgi dog (the Queen’s favourite!) originates from Wales; it means dwarf-dog or cor-ci.

 Felinfoel Brewery in South Wales, the oldest in Wales, was the first outside the US to sell beer in cans starting in 1931.

 The first boundary between England and Wales came in 784AD with the creation of Offa’s Dyke by King Offa of Mercia.

 Bill Frost was a Welsh inventor who apparently took to the air 8 years before the Wright brothers in his ‘Flying Machine’ in Saundersfoot 1895 before crashing into a tree.

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Railway Station

 The Welsh village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the second longest place name in the world meaning: St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave.

 Joseph ‘Job’ Daniels from Aberystwyth, West Wales, immigrated to the US in the 18th century. His grandson Jack went on to create the world renowned Jack Daniels whiskey.

 The Welsh have their own language, aptly named Welsh or Cymraeg, but only 11% in 2014 are fluent although 23% say they can speak some Welsh.

 Despite many years of extraction, Wales still has an immense source of many natural materials, and is responsible for many countries’ supplies from coal and slate to copper and steel. At one point, South Wales made up 40% of all coal exported by the UK.

 Rugby is the national sport of Wales. The first international game took place in 1881 between Wales and England. Throughout 1907 and 1910, the Welsh were undefeated.

 The world’s first radio message sent by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 took a 3 mile journey from Larvernock Point, south of Penarth, Wales, to Flat Holm in the Bristol Channel.

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

Anthony Hopkins

 Anthony Hopkins, the spine-tingling Hannibal Lecter actor, was born in Wales in 1937.

 Wales were the first nation to win the Rugby Grand Slam when they beat Ireland in Belfast in 1908. The team had to wear trial jerseys without the Prince of Wales feathers because someone packed the wrong kit!

 The British royal family use Welsh gold for wedding rings. This tradition was continued in the royal wedding of 2011 by the Duke, the future Prince of Wales, and Duchess of Cambridge.

 Every year an Eisteddfod, a festival of poetry, literature and music, is conducted across with Wales, with the first being held by Lord Rhys at Cardigian castle in 1176.

 The Welsh flag of red, green and white was officially recognised from 1959. The dragon allegedly came from an Arthurian legend which told of wizard Merlin’s vision of a red dragon fighting a white This purportedly represented the battle between the native Britons (red) and Saxon invaders (white). The red dragon won and the green and white refer to the colors of the House of Tudor.

 St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was actually Welsh! A resident of Banwen in the Dulais Valley, he was apparently taken to Ireland by Irish slavers.

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

Bala, North Wales, cooked the world’s largest Welsh cake

 For St David’s Day 2014, residents in Bala, North Wales, cooked the world’s largest Welsh cake. The fruity griddled flat-bread measured an astonishing 5ft (1.5m) wide and weighed 48lbs (21.7kg)! After that mammoth creation, it would have been rude to waste so it was subsequently cut into 200+ pieces.

 Welsh is spoken by ¾ million people across England, the US, Canada and Argentina.

 Mount Everest is named after Welshman Sir George Everest.

 The Welsh love-spoon is an iconic symbol across the world, originally carved by men to their respective lover’s family as a sign he was capable and skilled with his hands. Each symbol is representative of something, from the knot representing love, to the twist meaning the couple’s bond.

 Roald Dahl, the world famous children’s author of so many tales including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG, was born in Cardiff in 1916.

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

Highly strung - Menai Bridge

 Menai Bridge in Anglesey - designed by Thomas Telford and opened on 30 January 1826 - was the first suspension bridge in the world constructed to take heavy traffic. At the time it was built it was also longest bridge in world (measuring 1,265ft, with a 579ft span).

Ye Old Bulls Head, Beaumaris  The entrance to the coach yard of the 15th century Ye Old Bulls Head Inn in Beaumaris is the largest simple hinged door in Britain (13ft high and 11ft wide).

Armchair Travel _ Destination - Wales _

The oldest tree in Wales

 The oldest tree in Wales is the Llangernyw Yew in St Digain’s church yard, Llangernyw, near Conwy. It’s approximately 4,000 years old.