Llanddulas is a village in

Conwy county borough Conwy County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the north Wales, north of Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south and Denbighshire to the east. The largest settlement is Colwyn Bay, and Conwy is the administrativ ...

, Wales, midway between Old Colwyn and

Abergele Abergele (; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county b ...

and next to the North Wales Expressway in 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 Llanddulas and Rhyd-y-Foel. The village lies beneath the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

hill of Cefn-yr-Ogof (670 ft). This hill has large

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

s, and

quarrying A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their s ...

of limestone was formerly the main industry of the village, with crushed stone being exported from the 200 m long

jetty A jetty is a man-made structure that protrudes from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater (structure), breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French la ...

. According to figures from the 2011

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Llanddulas, combined with nearby village Rhyd y Foel, had a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,542, with around 23% of the population having some knowledge of the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

. Llanddulas is notable as being the place where Richard II was betrayed in 1399. and is also the birthplace of Lewis Valentine. Between 1889 and 1952 the village had its own railway station. According to legend, a cave on the mountain of Pen y Cefn was once the abode of the Devil, until the people of Llanddulas performed an

exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be do ...

at the cave to drive him away. Llanddulas Limestone and Gwrych Castle Wood is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. In February 1990 a storm and high tide caused extensive flooding to the east of here, especially at Towyn and

Kinmel Bay Kinmel Bay () is a large seaside village in Conwy County Borough, north-east Wales. It is also an electoral ward to the county council and town council. The resort town of Rhyl lies just across the River Clwyd in the neighbouring county of De ...

. New coastal defence works were built along seven miles of coast from Old Colwyn to the River Clwyd. At Llanddulas these consist of Dolos concrete. At Northern Towers, a gateway to Gwrych Castle, a battle is commemorated with four plaques. Plas Dulas, now demolished, has literary associations with

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

and Noel Coward. Waugh wrote the satirical novel '' Decline and Fall'' while staying there and his experiences during his visit inspired Llanabba Castle, a fictional school, in the novel. During 1925, Waugh taught at Arnold House, a former private school in Llanddulas.

Notable residents

* Richard MacGillivray Dawkins at Plas Dulas * Billy Morris (footballer, born 1918) * Lewis Valentine *

References

External links

Photos of Llanddulas and surrounding area
Llanddulas and Rhyd-y-Foel Villages in Conwy County Borough {{Conwy-geo-stub