In Snowdonia, a mountainous region and national park in northwest Wales

 "Wales was in ancient times divided into three parts nearly equal, consideration having been paid, in this division, more to the value than to the just quantity or proportion of territory."

-- Gerald of Wales
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(in Snowdonia, a mountainous region and national park in northwest Wales) This part of Wales really packs it in, from rugged mountain trails to coastal paths, old industrial sites and heritage train lines. The gem in this diadem is Snowdonia National Park, where the peaks south of Scotland scrape glowering skies, as shown here. With such a formid­able mountain shield, it is little wonder that the northwestern county of Gwynedd has held tightly to Cymraeg language and its culture. More than 65% speak the ancient mother tongue here -- the highest proportion in the country.

+ Famed for its strikingly rugged landscape, the small nation of Wales was one of Celtic Europe’s most prominent political and cultural centers and it retains aspects of culture that are markedly different from those of its English neighbors. The medieval chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) had topography, history, and current events alike in mind when he observed that Wales is a “country very strongly defended by high mountains, deep valleys, extensive woods, rivers, and marshes, in somuch that from the time the Saxons took possession of the island, the remnants of the Britons retiring into these regions, could never be entirely subdued, either by the English or the Normans.”

+ In time, however, Wales was in fact subdued and, by the Act of Union of 1536, formally joined to the kingdom of England. Welsh engineers, linguists, musicians, writers, and soldiers went on to make significant contributions to the development of the larger British Empire even as many of their compatriots labored at home to preserve cultural traditions and even the Welsh language itself, which enjoyed a revival in the late 20th century.

+ Snowdonia contains all 15 mountains in Wales over 3000 feet high; the peaks are all part of the Snowdon, Glyderau, and Carneddau ranges in the north of the region. The national park covers most of County Gwynedd and the western part of the Conwy County Borough. It also includes most of the coast between Porthmadog and Aberdyfi. The park was the first of the three national parks of Wales to be designated, in October 1951, and the third in the UK after the Peak District and Lake District, which were both established in 1951. (The park has had some three million visitors (in recent years). Before the boundaries of the national park were designated, "Snowdonia" was generally used to refer to a smaller upland area of northern Gwynedd centred on the Snowdon massif. The national park covers an area more than twice that size, extending south into the Meirionnydd area. When Snowdonia National Park was established in October 1951, it was the 3rd national park in the UK, following the Peak District and Lake District in April and May of the same year.