| Clubname: | Carnarvon Athletic |
| Fullname: | Carnarvon Athletic Football Club |
| Nickname: | C.A.C., Old Carnarvon[1] |
| Founded: | 1876 |
| Dissolved: | 1893 |
| Ground: | Coedhelen Ferry Field |
| Chrtitle: | President |
| Chairman: | Sir Llewellyn Turner[2] |
| Mgrtitle: | Secretary |
| Manager: | C. P. Boucher |
| Pattern La1: | _thin_blackhoops |
| Pattern B1: | _thin_blackhoops |
| Pattern Ra1: | _thin_blackhoops |
| Pattern So1: | _hoops_black |
| Leftarm1: | FF2400 |
| Body1: | FF2400 |
| Rightarm1: | FF2400 |
| Shorts1: | 000000 |
| Socks1: | FF2400 |
Carnarvon Athletic F.C.[3] was an association football club from Caernarfon in north Wales.
The club was formed in 1876, as a football side from an athletic club founded in 1866,[4] and played 5 matches in its first season, winning one.[5] It played in the first Welsh Cup in 1877–78, losing at home to Bangor in the first round.[6]
After playing in the first two competitions, the club stepped back from the national competition, playing instead in the Northern Welsh Association Cup, which was first played in 1879–80; the club reached the semi-final stage, which consisted of 3 clubs, but did not draw the bye, and lost to Llanrwst.[7] The club went one stage further in 1881–82, but lost to Mountain Rangers of Bangor in the final.[8] It also apparently reached the final in 1883–84, but a protest from Bangor that the C.A.C.'s winning goal came from a foul was upheld,[9] and Carnarvon refused to re-play the tie, instead launching a counter-protest (on the basis that the chairman could not hear the protest, as his club had not paid a subscription fee), which was dismissed.[10]
Athletic re-entered the national competition from 1884–85, and reached the semi-final on its return, albeit after only winning one tie; in the last four, the club lost to Druids at the Racecourse Ground.[11]
The club took over Carnarvon Wanderers at the end of the 1886–87 season, the Wanderers players (including star forward Harry Owen and secretary Humphreys)[12] joining the club afterwards.[13] The Athletic reserve team used the Wanderers name on at least one occasion afterwards.[14]
Despite this boost to membership, the club only entered the Welsh Cup once more, in 1890–91, losing in the first round at home to Rhyl.[15] The last reference to the club is a 4–1 defeat at Bangor in a charity match on 22 April 1893.[16]
The club played in scarlet and black.[17]
The athletic club's ground was at a field close to Caernarfon Castle, on the opposite side of the Seiont, and belonved to one Rice W. Thomas.[18] By 1877 the club was playing on a ground at Bethesda Road,[19] 5 minutes from Carnarvon station.[20] although the club was back at Mr Thomas' field - now called Coedhelen Ferry Field - by 1881.[21] The club moved to The Oval in 1888.[22]