Porthmadog – North Wales
Porthmadog, known locally as Port, is a small coastal town and community in Caernarfonshire, North Wales. It falls under the Eifionydd administrative area of Gwynedd and prior to the Local Government Act 1972 it was in the administrative county of Caernarfonshire.
The town lies 5 miles (8 km) east of Criccieth, 11 miles (18 km) south west of Blaenau Ffestiniog, 25 miles (40 km) north of Dolgellau and 20 miles (32 km) south of Caernarfon. It has a population of around 4,187.
Porthmadog is located in Eifionydd on the estuary of the Afon Glaslyn where it runs into Tremadog Bay. The estuary, filled with sediment which was deposited by rivers emptying from the melting glaciers at the end of the last ice age, is a haven for migrating birds. Oystercatchers, redshanks and curlews are common and, in summer, there are flocks of sandwich terns. To the west looms Moel-y-Gest, which rises 860 feet (260 m) above the town. The town has a temperate maritime climate which is influenced by the Gulf Stream.
Porthmadog developed in the 19th century as a port exporting slate to England. Since the decline of the slate industry it has become an important shopping centre for the surrounding area and a popular tourist destination. It has easy access to the Snowdonia National Park and is the terminus of the Ffestiniog Railway. In 1987 the National Eisteddfod was held in Porthmadog.
The community includes the nearby villages of Borth-y-Gest, Morfa Bychan and Tremadog.
In 1811 William Madocks built a sea wall, “the Cob” to reclaim Traeth Mawr for agriculture. In the second half of the 19th century Porthmadog was a flourishing port, its population expanding from 885 in 1821 to over 3,000 by 1861. The rapidly expanding cities of England needed high quality roofing slate, which was transported to the new port by tramway from the quarries in Ffestiniog and Llanfrothen. The Ffestiniog Railway opened in 1836, followed by the Croesor Tramway in 1864 and the Gorseddau Tramway in 1856, and by 1873 over 116,000 tons (117,800 t) were exported through Porthmadog in more than a thousand ships.
