Harlech is a seaside resort and community in the North Wales county of Gwynedd. Before 1974 it was in the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies on Tremadog Bay in the Snowdonia National Park. Since 1966 it has belonged to the unitary authority of Gwynedd and before that to the Meirionydd District of the 1974 County of Gwynedd. Its landmark Harlech Castle was begun in 1283 by Edward I of England, captured by Owain Glyndŵr, and in the 1480s a stronghold of Henry Tudor, then on a seaside cliff face, but now about half a mile inland. New housing has appeared in the low town and in the high town around the shopping street, church and castle. The two are linked by a steep, winding road called "Twtil". Of its 1,447 inhabitants, 51 per cent habitually speak Welsh. The built-up area, with Llanfair, had a population of 1,762 in the 2001 census, over half of whom lacked Welsh identity.
Etymology
The exact derivation of the name "Harlech" is unclear. Some, mostly older sources derive it from Arddlech, i. e. ardd + llech, referring to the prominent crag on which the castle stands. Recent sources prefer a simpler derivation from the two Welsh words hardd and llech. As late as the 19th century some texts referred to "Harddlech" and "Harddlech Castle". This name appears in the mid-19th century translation of the Mabinogion: "And one afternoon he was at Harddlech in Ardudwy, at a court of his. And they were seated upon the rock of Harddlech overlooking the sea." Contemporary documents from the time of the Mabinogion do not mention Harlech, referring only to Llywelyn building his castle "at Ardudwy".
Governance
An electoral ward in the same name includes Talsarnau community. The ward population at the 2011 census was 1,997.
Transport
is served by the Cambrian Coast Line. The town contains Ffordd Pen Llech, a street down the rock spur to the north of the castle. It is the steepest signed, public paved road in the United Kingdom and possibly the steepest in the world.
Theatr Harlech is located on the Coleg Harlech campus and stages a varied selection of plays, music, and films throughout the year. Other attractions in Harlech include its beach backed with sand dunes and the Royal Saint David's Golf Club, which hosted its fifth British Ladies Amateur in 2009. The Rhinogyddrange of mountains rises to the east. In 2007, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning was rediscovered on Harlech beach. It has been described as "one of the most important WWII finds in recent history". The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery expressed an interest in salvaging the wreck of the U.S. Army Air Forces plane, known as the Maid of Harlech. However in August 2019, Cadw, the Welsh government's historic environment service, gave the remains scheduled status, making it the first legally designated military aircraft crash site in the UK to be protected for its historic and archaeological interest. The site is also controlled under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. The aircraft came down in September 1942 when it was on a gunnery practice mission. The pilot was Second Lt Robert F Elliott, 24, of Rich Square, North Carolina, who survived the crash, only to be reported missing in action a few months later. Harlech has a Scout hut, which acts as a base for outdoor recreational activities.
In traditional and popular culture
A street in Harlech, Ffordd Pen Llech, had in 2019 been recognized by the Guinness World Records as the steepest residential street in the world with a gradient of 1:2.67, before Baldwin Street, in Dunedin, New Zealand was recognised with a gradient of 1:2.86. The steepness was determined by measuring consistently on the lower side of the street – the left or right, whichever was lower. It was later decided that consistently measuring in the middle of the street would be more correct. This gave Baldwin Street a gradient of 34.8% and Ffordd Pen Llech one of 28.6%, and so the title returned to Baldwin Street in New Zealand.
In the second branch of the Mabinogi, Harlech is the seat of Bendigeidfran, Branwen's brother and king of the Isle of the Mighty.
The song Men of Harlech is traditionally said to describe events during the seven-year siege of the castle in 1461–1468.
Owain Glyndŵr, Welsh Rebellion leader, was the last Welshman to claim the title Prince of Wales.
Ellis Wynne, Welsh-language author
Alfred Perceval Graves, poet, bard and songwriter. He and a large family, including his son the poet Robert Graves, spent summers at Erinfa, a large house north-east of Harlech.
George Davison, photographer
Margaret More, composer, was born here.
Elinor Lyon, children's writer, retired here in 1975 with her schoolteacher husband.
David Gwilym Morris Roberts, civil engineer, was born here.
