Aber-erch (,
Welsh for "Mouth of the
Erch") is a small village and former
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
on the
Llŷn Peninsula
The Llŷn Peninsula ( or , ) is a peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales, with an area of about , and a population of at least 20,000. It extends into the Irish Sea, and its southern coast is the northern boundary of the Tremadog Bay inlet of Cardigan Ba ...
in the
Welsh county of Gwynedd. The village lies approximately east of
Pwllheli
Pwllheli ( ; ) is a market town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula (), in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011, which declined slightly to 3,947 in 2021; a large proportion (81%) were Welsh language, Welsh speaking. ...
. A river, the Afon Erch runs through the village.
The parish was abolished in 1934 and incorporated into that of
Llannor, now the
community
A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
of Llannor. It is a mostly Welsh-speaking village and its name is often truncated to "Berch" in the local Welsh dialect.
There is a primary school, playschool, and a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
. The
Church of St Cawrdaf is a grade I listed building.
Aber-erch has a beach called 'Traeth Glan y Don' (which roughly translates to 'Shore of the wave beach') which extends from Morfa'r Garreg, Pwllheli to Pen-ychain. Parking for the beach is near the railway station. From the beach you have a view of Harlech Castle in the east all the way down to Tywyn (on a clearer day even further south) and to the west Pwllheli and the
St Tudwal's Islands. Access to the beach is through a footpath next the caravan and camp-site. This beach is ideal for days when the wind is from the north or north west due to the sheltered bay.
The ward includes the village of
Y Ffor and the small settlement of
Penrhos.
Notable people
*
John Elias (1774-1841), a powerful Christian preacher: ''"as if talking fire down from heaven"''
*
Ellis Owen Ellis (1813-1861), a Welsh portrait painter, cartoonist and illustrator.
References
Villages in Gwynedd
Llannor
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