Llanuwchllyn () is a village and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

in Gwynedd, Wales, near the southern end of

Bala Lake Bala Lake ( cy, Llyn Tegid ) is a large freshwater glacial lake in Gwynedd, Wales. The River Dee, which has its source on the slopes of Dduallt in the mountains of Snowdonia, feeds the long by wide lake. It was the largest natural body of ...

(Llyn Tegid). It is one of the most sparsely populated communities in Wales. The electoral ward includes the small settlement of

Llangywer Llangywer (or Llangower) is a community near Bala, Gwynedd, Wales. It is in the historic county of Merionethshire, and is located on the south side of Bala Lake. In 2011 the population of Llangywer was 260, with 67.2% of them able to speak Welsh ...

. The parish church of St Deiniol is a

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building.

Llanuwchllyn railway station Llanuwchllyn railway station (Welsh: �aˈnɨuχɬɨn(listen)) in the village of Llanuwchllyn, Gwynedd, Wales, was formerly a station on the Ruabon to Barmouth line. It closed to passengers on Monday 18 January 1965 at the same time as the r ...

is the headquarters of the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Bala Lake Railway The Bala Lake Railway ( Welsh: ''Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid'') is a narrow-gauge railway along the southern shore of Bala Lake in Gwynedd, North Wales. The line, which is long, is built on a section of the former standard-gauge Ruabon–Barmout ...

, centred on the former Great Western Railway station on the standard-gauge line from Ruabon to

Barmouth Barmouth ( cy, Abermaw (formal); ''Y Bermo'' (colloquial)) is a seaside town and community in the county of Gwynedd, northwestern Wales, lying on the estuary of the Afon Mawddach and Cardigan Bay. Located in the historic county of Merioneths ...

. The village was the birthplace of Welsh language author and educationalist Owen Morgan Edwards.

Caer Gai Caer Gai (also Caer-gai) is a Grade II listed Roman fort in the district of Penllyn, Gwynedd, Wales, UK. It is located about 1 mile or 1.6 km north of the village of Llanuwchllyn, and the same distance west of Lake Bala. Toponym The fort's ...

, a Roman fort near Llanuwchllyn, was traditionally known as the home of Cei, the character in the

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

known in English as Sir Kay. Poets of the 15th century recorded a story, ultimately deriving from the Prose ''Merlin'' included in the

Lancelot-Grail The ''Lancelot-Grail'', also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an early 13th-century French Arthurian literary cycle consisting of interconnected prose episodes of chivalric romance in Old French. The cycle of unknown author ...

and the

Post-Vulgate Cycle The ''Post-Vulgate Cycle'', also known as the Post-Vulgate Arthuriad, the Post-Vulgate ''Roman du Graal'' (''Romance of the Grail'') or the Pseudo-Robert de Boron Cycle, is one of the major Old French prose cycles of Arthurian literature from th ...

, that King Arthur and Cei were brought up at Caer Gai as foster brothers.Bromwich, p. 311. Caer Gai is also Grade II* listed.

Demographics

Welsh language

According to the 2011 Census, Llanuwchllyn is the community with the 2nd highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales. 83.5% of residents aged three and over reported being able to speak Welsh in the 2011 Census, as compared to 84.7% reporting being able to do so in the 2001 Census.

Governance

An electoral ward with same name exists. This ward also includes the community of

with a total population taken at the 2011 census of 877.

Notable people

* John Richards (1765–1850), schoolmaster, became an American politician in New York. * Michael D. Jones (1822–1898) a Welsh Congregationalist minister, principal of a theological college and co-founder of the Welsh settlement of

Y Wladfa Y Wladfa (, "The Colony"), also occasionally Y Wladychfa Gymreig (, "The Welsh Settlement"), refers to the establishment of settlements by Welsh immigrants in Patagonia, beginning in 1865, mainly along the coast of the lower Chubut Valley. I ...

in Patagonia. * Sir Owen Morgan Edwards (1858–1920) historian, educationalist and writer. * John Meirion Morris (1936–2020), sculptor.

Notes

References

* {{authority control Villages in Gwynedd Locations associated with Arthurian legend