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Wales travel guide

Traditionally, Wales is a land of green hills and welcoming valleys, of Welsh Cakes, crumbling castles, poets and song. It has sweeping sandy beaches and dramatic coves and towns with an old-fashioned, retro appeal that are promoted as a welcome antidote to the frenetic pace of 21st-century, big-city life. Wales is less populous than England, though its accessibility from southern, central and northern parts of the country make it a popular holiday haunt, with Snowdonia in the north a particular magnet for visitors in search of outdoor activities. 

The country is little more than 135 miles (216km) long and at one part less than 35 miles (56km) wide. The border runs from the mouth of the Dee in Liverpool Bay in the north to the mouth of the Wye on the Severn estuary in the south. It roughly follows the lines of the dyke built to contain the Celts by Offa, the powerful Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia from AD757 to 796. 

Some 300 years after Offa, the Normans drove the Welsh further into the hills, establishing the Marches and the powerful Marcher Lordships along the border. Wales was eventually conquered under the English King Edward I, when Llewellyn, the Prince of Wales, was killed in the Battle of Builth on the River Wye. The Statute of Wales in 1284 placed the country under English law and Edward presented his newborn son to the Welsh as Prince of Wales, a title held by the heir to the throne ever since. 

After Edward I’s conquest of Wales, there was a distinct irony in the fact that, in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, an English king (Richard III) was beaten by a Welshman, Henry Tudor, who gained the throne and became Henry VII. However, his son, Henry VIII, put an end to Welsh independence by instituting the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Although these gave the Welsh legal equality, they introduced English law to Wales and made English the language of the courts.

Devolution in the UK in 1997 created the Welsh Assembly and has returned some autonomy to the country, but the Welsh are wary of full independence. However, the Welsh work hard to protect their culture from their strong neighbour, something apparent in the widespread use of the Welsh language.

Wales Highlights

Between the mountains and the industrial south Wales coast run the valleys – Merthyr, Ebbw Vale, Rhondda, Neath – which were once synonymous with mining, and made Cardiff the world’s greatest coal port. Today, only a few deep mines remain, but Cardiff, the capital of Wales, is a thriving centre for business, government and tourism. However, the pride of southwest Wales is its coastline, especially around Pembrokeshire, where long-distance footpaths guide visitors over spectacular jagged cliffs.

In north Wales, Snowdonia’s crags and gullies have long attracted hikers and mountaineers. Equally deserving, though less well publicised, is the region’s glorious coastline, stretching north from the Dovey estuary around Anglesey to the River Conwy.

The Welsh border with England has remained largely unchanged since Henry VIII effectively annexed Wales in the 1540s. Ruined fortifications from ancient conflicts remain to this day amidst some of the most lush and picturesque countryside in Britain.