Seven Wonders of Wales explained

The Seven Wonders of Wales (Welsh: Saith Rhyfeddod Cymru) is a traditional list of notable landmarks in north Wales, commemorated in an anonymously written rhyme:

The rhyme is usually supposed to have been written sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century by an English visitor to North Wales.[1] The specific number of wonders may have varied over the years: the antiquary Daines Barrington, in a letter written in 1770, refers to Llangollen Bridge as one of the "five wonders of Wales, though like the seven wonders of Dauphiny, they turn out to be no wonders at all out of the Principality".[2]

The seven wonders comprise:

ImageWonderLocationDateNotable Features
Pistyll RhaeadrNear Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powysn/aA tall waterfall, falling 240 ft (73 m) in three stages
St Giles' Church
Eglwys San Silyn
Wrexham16th-centuryThe 16th-century tower of St Giles' Church in Wrexham can be seen for miles
Overton yew trees
Coed ywen Owrtyn
Overton-on-Dee, Wrexham County BoroughPlanted at different times, ~3rd–12th century21 yew trees at St Mary's Church
St Winefride's Well
Ffynnon Wenffrewi
Holywell, FlintshireAD 660 (as pilgrimage site), constructions date to medieval.Historically claimed to have healing waters
Llangollen Bridge
Pont Llangollen
Llangollen, DenbighshireCurrent construction dates from around 1500Site of the first stone bridge to span the Dee
Bells of All Saints' Church, Gresford
Clychau Gresffordd
Gresford, Wrexham County Borough13th-centuryThe church bells are listed for their purity and tone
Snowdon
Yr Wyddfa
Snowdonia, Gwyneddn/aHighest mountain in Wales at 3,560 ft (1,085 m)

See also

Notes and References

  1. http://britannia.com/wales/7wonders/wonderintro.html Wales on Britannia: Seven Wonders of Wales
  2. Letter to Mr. Gough, July 20, 1770, in Illustrations of the literary history of the eighteenth century, v.5, Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1828, p.583