Qualla: Porthmadog https://qualla.com/porthmadog en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Porthmadog https://qualla.com/porthmadog Porthmadog: Introduction https://qualla.com/porthmadog/ There would be no Porthmadog without William Madocks. Between 1808 and 1811 he built the Cob, a sea wall across the Glaslyn estuary, to reclaim land at Traeth Mawr for farming. The diverted river scoured out a new harbour deep enough for ocean-going sailing ships, and quarry companies promptly arrived to take advantage. By 1825 there were public wharves; by 1861 the village of 885 souls had become a town of more than 3,000; and the slate of Blaenau Ffestiniog was being shipped from these quays to roof the rapidly expanding cities of industrial England. The town that grew up around the harbour is still here, still mostly Welsh-speaking, still the southern terminus of two narrow-gauge railways that climb into the mountains.

Read more: Porthmadog on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/j/porthmadog-wp/gcmj-porthmadog-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Porthmadog: The Cob https://qualla.com/porthmadog/ Madocks's sea wall was a gamble of an order rarely seen in nineteenth-century Wales. It opened in 1811 with a four-day feast and Eisteddfod, celebrating a road that connected Caernarfonshire to Meirionnydd. Three weeks later, high tides breached the embankment. Madocks's supporte...

Read more: Porthmadog on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/j/porthmadog-wp/gcmj-porthmadog-the-cob.mp3 0:06 2 full Porthmadog: Slate to the World https://qualla.com/porthmadog/ By 1873 some 116,000 tons of slate were being shipped out of Porthmadog every year. Local shipbuilders responded with a distinctive answer: the three-masted schooners they called Western Ocean Yachts, designed to handle the long passages to South America, the Mediterranean, and t...

Read more: Porthmadog on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/j/porthmadog-wp/gcmj-porthmadog-slate-to-the-world.mp3 0:06 3 full Porthmadog: Three Railways and a Heritage https://qualla.com/porthmadog/ What looked like an ending was actually a pause. Volunteers reopened the Ffestiniog Railway in 1955 as a heritage line; today it runs the entire thirteen and a half miles from Porthmadog Harbour to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and it is the second-most-visited tourist attraction in Wales ...

Read more: Porthmadog on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/j/porthmadog-wp/gcmj-porthmadog-three-railways-and-a-heritage.mp3 0:06 4 full Porthmadog: The Eisteddfod Town https://qualla.com/porthmadog/ The National Eisteddfod of Wales, the country's major Welsh-language cultural festival, came to Porthmadog in 1937, again in 1980, and once more in 1987. Most residents speak Welsh - about 75% of inhabitants in the 2011 census - and the town council does its business in the langu...

Read more: Porthmadog on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/j/porthmadog-wp/gcmj-porthmadog-the-eisteddfod-town.mp3 0:06 5 full Porthmadog: Three Beaches and a Harpist's Air https://qualla.com/porthmadog/ Around the town the coast unfolds in small surprises. Borth-y-Gest, a sheltered bay south of the harbour, holds the old pilot houses where men once watched for incoming ships needing local knowledge. Morfa Bychan, two miles south-west, has Black Rock Sands, a beach so wide and fi...

Read more: Porthmadog on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/j/porthmadog-wp/gcmj-porthmadog-three-beaches-and-a-harpists-air.mp3 0:06 6 full