Beddgelert, Snowdonia
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
There is a legend which says that the Welsh King, Llewellyn the Great, once lost his infant son (in the car-keys sense of the word, rather than the more usual euphemism-for-dead sense). The search for the child had been going on for some time when Llewellyn's dog Gelert arrived with his mouth covered in blood.
Llewellyn jumped to the obvious conclusion and immediately slew the dog. Shortly thereafter the child was found, and next to him the dead body of a wolf, clearly bearing the marks of Gelert's fangs.
Contrite, Llewellyn erected a monument to his faithful hound. And the village nearby has become known as Beddgelert, which in Welsh means "grave of Gelert."
Now, there are worse things for a town than being named after a dead dog. Probably. Thankfully, a benign Providence has made up for this unfortunate happenstance by endowing the village with more charm than seems reasonable for such a quiet place.
Situated on the river Glaslyn which flows down form the mountains of Snowdonia, Beddgelert nestles at the foot of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and boasts picturesque stone cottages, warm and welcoming pubs, and some of the best walks in the United Kingdom.
I would, however, strongly recommend that you do not try to get there by bicycle. Flat is not a term often used to describe the roads around here. In fact Snowdonia has some of the most unashamedly un-flat roads to be found anywhere in the UK. So be warned.
I would also note that Gelert comes out of the legend rather better than Llewellyn. But dead. That's an important point. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
