Town in Gwynedd, Wales
Porthmadog
Porthmadog exists because one man built a mile-long wall across the sea, and then slate, schooners and little steam trains did the rest.
Key information
- County
- Gwynedd
- Nation
- Wales
- Known for
- The Cob, the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways, slate shipping, schooners, Black Rock Sands
- Famous people
- William Madocks, Clough Williams-Ellis
About Porthmadog
The town that was reclaimed from the sea
Until the early 1800s, there was no Porthmadog. There was a vast tidal flat called Traeth Mawr, and the sea flooded across it twice a day. Then came William Madocks, an MP and landowner with big ideas. He built an embankment across the estuary, a straight line of stone and earth known as the Cob, and finished it in 1811. Thousands of acres of marsh became farmland, and the river Glaslyn was forced into a new channel on the seaward side. The sea did not give up easily. A storm broke through the Cob in 1812 and it had to be repaired, but it held. A mile long, it still carries the road and the railway into town.
A name with a legend tucked inside it
The town is named after Madocks himself, who gave his name to the port. The spelling happens to echo another Madoc: the Welsh prince said in legend to have sailed west in 1170 and found America. Madocks was well aware of the pun, and it did the new harbour no harm. Porthmadog is in Welsh the 'port of Madog', and locals often just call it Port.
Slate by gravity, steam by ingenuity
The harbour's great business was slate. Roofing slate was quarried in the mountains around Blaenau Ffestiniog, and it had to get to the sea. The answer was the Ffestiniog Railway, opened in 1836. Loaded slate wagons ran downhill to Porthmadog by gravity alone. Horses rode down in special wagons and pulled the empties back up. Steam took over in the 1860s, and the line's Double Fairlie locomotives, which have an engine at each end, became famous among railway engineers. The company dates back to 1832, which makes it one of the oldest railway companies in the world. Today it carries passengers through the hills from Porthmadog Harbour station, and the Welsh Highland Railway runs on from the town towards Caernarfon, giving the area two narrow-gauge lines side by side.
Schooners built on the mud
Porthmadog's slate had to cross the sea, and the town built its own ships to do it. Local yards launched hundreds of sturdy topsail schooners, nicknamed Western Ocean Yachts, which were designed to be cheap to run with small crews. They carried slate to ports across Europe and brought back cargo from far afield, and some crossed the Atlantic. Porthmadog became one of the best-known small shipbuilding towns in Britain. The age of sail faded in the early twentieth century, as steamships and cheaper roofing materials took over. The Maritime Museum, on the old harbour at Oakley Wharf, tells the story of the shipbuilders and sailors.
Sand you can drive on, and a village that looks like Italy
Just along the coast is Black Rock Sands at Morfa Bychan, a wide beach where you can drive a car onto the sand. Beyond the Glaslyn estuary stands Portmeirion, the colourful fantasy village created by Clough Williams-Ellis. It was the setting for the 1967 television series The Prisoner. Behind it all are the peaks of Snowdonia, which make the town's setting among the best in north Wales.
Life in Port today
Porthmadog is a busy market and shopping town, and Welsh is the everyday language of the high street. Its harbour is now more about boats and walkers than slate. The football club, Porthmadog FC, was founded in 1872, and plays at Y Traeth. The railways draw visitors from around the world, and the mile-long Cob remains the town's best-known landmark.