Portal:Wales

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Wales (Welsh: Cymru [ˈkəmrɨ] ^ⓘ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic Sea to the south-west. As of 2021^[update], it had a population of 3.2 million. It has a total area of 21,218 square kilometres (8,192 sq mi) and over 2,700 kilometres (1,680 mi) of coastline. It is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), its highest summit. The country lies within the north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate. Its capital and largest city is Cardiff.

A distinct Welsh culture emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales was briefly united under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in 1055. After over 200 years of war, the conquest of Wales by King Edward I of England was completed by 1283, though Owain Glyndŵr led the Welsh Revolt against English rule in the early 15th century, and briefly re-established an independent Welsh state with its own national parliament (Welsh: senedd). In the 16th century the whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by David Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism and the Labour Party. Welsh national feeling grew over the century: a nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, was formed in 1925, and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. A governing system of Welsh devolution is employed in Wales, of which the most major step was the formation of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament, formerly the National Assembly for Wales) in 1998, responsible for a range of devolved policy matters. (Full article...)

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Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa, pronounced [əɾ ˈwɪðva]) is the highest mountain in Wales, at an altitude of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri) in Gwynedd, and has been described as "probably the busiest mountain in Britain". It is designated as a national nature reserve for its rare flora and fauna.

The rocks that form Snowdon were produced by volcanoes in the Ordovician period, and the massif has been extensively sculpted by glaciation, forming the pyramidal peak of Snowdon and the arêtes of Crib Goch and Y Lliwedd. The cliff faces on Snowdon, including Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, are significant for rock climbing, and the mountain was used by Edmund Hillary in training for the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest. The summit can also be reached on the Snowdon Mountain Railway, a rack and pinion railway opened in 1896 which carries passengers the 4.7 miles (7.6 km) from Llanberis to the summit station. The summit also houses a visitor centre called Hafod Eryri, built in 2006 to replace one built in the 1930s by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis.

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Credit: Oliwan

A view from the headland of Cardiff City Hall.

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Did you know...?

... that Welsh novelist Ron Berry once wrote a book about his observations of Peregrine Falcons?
... that a Welshman, Dai Davies, is the only person to have appeared in both the rugby league Challenge Cup final and the association football FA Cup Final?
... that as a condition of paying for restoration work, a 19th-century benefactor of St Mary's Church in Bodewryd required the church to have Islamic-style stained glass?
... that St Mary's Church, Rhodogeidio was built as a chapel of ease for St Ceidio's Church, but both are now disused and St Mary's is in ruins?

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It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea.

— Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood (1954)

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Alfred Ernest Jones (1 January 1879 – 11 February 1958) was a Welsh neurologist, psychoanalyst and Sigmund Freud’s official biographer. As the first English-language practitioner of psychoanalysis and as President of both of the British Psycho-Analytical Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association in the 1920s and 1930s, Jones exercised unmatched influence in the establishment of its organisations, institutions and publications in the English-speaking world. After obtaining his medical degrees Jones specialised in neurology and took a number of posts in London Hospitals. It was through his association with the surgeon Wilfred Trotter that Jones recalled first hearing of Freud’s work. Having worked together as surgeons at University College Hospital they had become close friends, with Trotter taking the role of mentor and confidant to his younger colleague. They had in common a wide-ranging interest in philosophy and literature, as well as a growing interest in Continental psychiatric literature and the new forms of clinical therapy it surveyed. By 1905 they were sharing accommodation above Harley Street consulting rooms with Jones’s sister, Elizabeth ( later to become Trotter’s wife), installed as housekeeper. Jones, appalled at what he had seen of the institutionalised treatment of the "insane", began experimenting with hypnotic techniques in his clinical work.

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In the news

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The following are images from various Wales-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Portrait of William Morgan. (from History of Wales)
Image 2A Plaid Cymru rally in Machynlleth in 1949, where the Parliament for Wales Campaign began (from History of Wales)
Image 3Standard of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, King of Powys 1063-1075. (from History of Wales)
Image 4Owain Glyndŵr (from History of Wales)
Image 5Harlech Castle was one of a series built by Edward I to consolidate his conquest. (from History of Wales)
Image 6Medieval crwth instrument (from Culture of Wales)
Image 7Statue of Owain Glyndŵr (c. 1354 or 1359 – c. 1416) at Cardiff City Hall
Image 8King Hywel Dda depicted enthroned in a 13th-century manuscript (from History of Wales)
Image 9Medieval kingdoms of Wales shown within the boundaries of the present day country of Wales and not inclusive of all (from History of Wales)
Image 10Tom Jones performing with Janis Joplin in 1969 (from Culture of Wales)
Image 11Medieval map of Welsh realms (from History of Wales)
Image 12The Bard, 1774, by Thomas Jones (1742–1803) (from Culture of Wales)
Image 13Crempog - Anglesey style (from Culture of Wales)
Image 14Senedd-Welsh Parliament, Cardiff Bay. (from History of Wales)
Image 15"Cymdeithas yr Iaith" (Society for the Language) bilingual road sign protest, 1972. (from History of Wales)
Image 16The Flag of Saint David (from Culture of Wales)
Image 17Big Pit, National Coal Museum. (from History of Wales)
Image 18Market Day in Old Wales by Sydney Curnow Vosper (1910) (from Culture of Wales)
Image 19Dowlais Ironworks (1840) by George Childs (1798–1875) (from History of Wales)
Image 20Map of the Roman invasion of Wales (from History of Wales)
Image 21Bryn Celli Ddu, a late Neolithic chambered tomb on Anglesey
Image 22Battle at Mametz Wood by Christopher Williams (1918), commissioned by Secretary of State for War at the time, David Lloyd George. (from History of Wales)
Image 23Red Dragon of Wales (from Culture of Wales)
Image 24Two of the furnaces of the Blaenavon Ironworks (from History of Wales)
Image 25Gravestone of King Cadfan ap Iago of Gwynedd (died c. 625) in Llangadwaladr church (from History of Wales)
Image 26Britain in AD 500: The areas shaded pink on the map were inhabited by the Britons, here labelled Welsh. The pale blue areas in the east were controlled by Germanic tribes, while the pale green areas to the north were inhabited by the Gaels and Picts. (from History of Wales)
Image 27Caradog by Thomas Prydderch. Caradog was leader of the north Walian Celtic tribe, the Ordovices, and led multiple Celtic tribes against the Romans. (from History of Wales)
Image 28Facsimile of Part of Column 579 from the Red Book of Hergest (from Culture of Wales)
Image 29Offa's Dyke (Clawdd Offa) Map. (from History of Wales)
Image 30Cawl, a Welsh dish of meat and vegetables (from Culture of Wales)
Image 31Owain Glyndŵr painting by AC Michael (from Culture of Wales)
Image 32Opening of the Sixth Senedd in Cardiff in 2021 (from History of Wales)

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