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, villag ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the North West Wales, north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County B ...

, 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. The parish church of St Deiniol is a Grade II* listed building. Llanuwchllyn railway station 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 struc ...

Bala Lake Railway, centred on the former

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 mill ...

station on the standard-gauge line from

Ruabon Ruabon ( cy, Rhiwabon ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The name comes from ''Rhiw Fabon'', ''rhiw'' being the Welsh word for "slope" or "hillside" and ''Fabon'' being a mutation from St Mabon, the original churc ...

to Barmouth. The village was the birthplace of Welsh language author and educationalist Owen Morgan Edwards. Caer Gai, a Roman fort near Llanuwchllyn, was traditionally known as the home of

Cei CEI may refer to: Companies and organizations * Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think-tank * Council of Engineering Institutions, later the Engineering Council * Cycle Engineers' Institute, a screw thread pattern, see British Stand ...

, 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 Weste ...

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 aut ...

and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, 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 Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

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 Llangywer 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 Michael Daniel Jones (2 March 1822 – 2 December 1898) was a Welsh people, Welsh Congregational church, Congregationalist minister and principal of a theological college, but is best remembered as a founder of the Welsh settlement in Patago ...

(1822–1898) a Welsh Congregationalist minister, principal of a theological college and co-founder of the Welsh settlement of Y Wladfa 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