Qualla: Bangor University

Bangor University: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 12xii, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the University College of North Wales opened its doors in October 1884, much of the start-up money had come from working people - the quarrymen of Penrhyn and Dinorwig, the slate dressers, the smallholders, the chapel ministers, who had given a penny here, a shilling there, to put their language and their children into a university for the first time. The college had no permanent building. It rented the disused Penrhyn Arms Hotel and held its first classes there. Fifty-eight students enrolled. Henry Reichel, a young Anglo-Irish scholar with a degree from Oxford, became the first Principal and stayed for forty-three years. From those origins, Bangor University grew into one of the most distinctive academic institutions in the British Isles.

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Image: 12xii | CC BY-SA 4.0

Bangor University: The First Welsh Chair

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Carrick Gow, Public domain. Bangor's most distinctive contribution to Welsh life came in 1894, when the university established the first chair in the Welsh language at any university anywhere. Sir John Morris-Jones, scholar, poet and grammarian, was its first holder. Before this, Welsh had been spoken by pe...

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Image: Andrew Carrick Gow | Public domain

Bangor University: Two Mountaineers and a Nobel Laureate

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jones.GT, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bangor's third Principal, Charles Evans, was a mountaineer who had served as deputy leader of the 1953 Everest expedition - he and Tom Bourdillon reached within 300 feet of the summit two days before Hillary and Tenzing succeeded. Evans came to Bangor in 1958 and led the college ...

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Image: Jones.GT | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bangor University: Poets, Politicians, and Bridget Jones

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geoff Charles, CC BY-SA 4.0. The arts have done at least as well. R. S. Thomas - poet, Anglican priest, and one of the great twentieth-century poets in the English language - studied at Bangor. So did Kate Roberts, often called the Welsh Chekhov for her short stories of Welsh quarrying communities. Gwyn Thom...

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Image: Geoff Charles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Bangor University: The Ffriddoedd Village

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PigeonCowSheepGoatBaaa, CC BY-SA 4.0. Walk west from the city centre and the campus thickens into halls of residence. The Ffriddoedd Village in Upper Bangor takes its name from the Welsh word ffridd, meaning mountain pasture or sheep path; the village currently houses about 2,000 students. Eleven en-suite halls compl...

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Image: PigeonCowSheepGoatBaaa | CC BY-SA 4.0

Bangor University: A Gold-Rated University

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geoff Charles, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2017 Bangor became the only university in Wales to be rated Gold by the UK government's Teaching Excellence Framework, a designation reserved for institutions providing consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes. In the National Student Survey, the university's s...

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Image: Geoff Charles | CC BY-SA 4.0