Snowdonia, or Eryri, is a mountainous region and national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales over 3000 feet high, including the country's highest, Snowdon, which is 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) tall. These peaks are all part of the Snowdon, Glyderau, and Carneddau ranges in the north of the region. The shorter Moelwynion and Moel Hebog ranges lie immediately to the south.
Hedd Wyn was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I. He was posthumously awarded the bard's chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name Hedd Wyn from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the Meirionnydd valleys.
The Rhinogydd are a range of mountains located east of Harlech in North Wales. The name Rhinogydd derives from the names of two of the more famous peaks, Rhinog Fawr and Rhinog Fach, although the greatest elevation in the range is reached by Y Llethr, 756 m.
The Glyderau are a mountain group in Snowdonia, North Wales. The name derives from the highest peaks in the range, Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach. According to Sir Ifor Williams, the word "Glyder" derives from the Welsh word "Cludair", meaning a heap of stones.
The Carneddau are a group of mountains in Snowdonia, Wales. They include the largest contiguous areas of high ground in Wales and England, as well as six or seven of the highest peaks in the country—the Fifteen Peaks. The range also encloses a number of lakes such as Llyn Cowlyd and Llyn Eigiau, and the Aber Falls waterfall. It is delimited by the Irish Sea to the north, the Conwy valley to the east, and by the A5 road from Betws-y-Coed to Bethesda to the south and west. The area covers nearly 200 square kilometres (80 sq mi), about 10% of the area of Snowdonia. The area is bordered by three main roads—the A55, the A5 to the south and the A470 to the east.
Glyder Fawr is a mountain in Snowdonia, Wales, the highest peak in the Glyderau range at just over 1,000 metres. It is the fifth-highest mountain in Wales and has several walking and scrambling routes leading to its summit. According to Sir Ifor Williams, the word "Glyder" derives from the Welsh word "Gludair", meaning a heap of stones.
Carnedd Llewelyn, also spelled Carnedd Llywelyn, is a mountain massif in the Carneddau range in Snowdonia, north-west Wales. It is the highest point of the Carneddau and the second highest peak by relative height in Wales, 49th in the British Isles and lies on the border between Gwynedd and Conwy.
Cadair Idris or Cader Idris is a mountain in the Meirionnydd area of Gwynedd, Wales. It lies at the southern end of the Snowdonia National Park near the town of Dolgellau. The peak, which is one of the most popular in Wales for walkers and hikers, is composed largely of Ordovician igneous rocks, with classic glacial erosion features such as cwms, moraines, striated rocks, and roches moutonnées.
The Exmoor Pony is a British breed of pony or small horse. It is one of the mountain and moorland pony breeds native to the British Isles, and so falls within the larger Celtic group of European ponies. It originates on, and is named for, the Exmoor area of moorland in north-eastern Devon and western Somerset, in south-west England, and is well adapted to the climate conditions and poor grazing of the moor. Some still live there in a near-feral state, but most are in private ownership.
The national parks of Wales are managed areas of outstanding landscape in Wales, United Kingdom where some forms of development are restricted to preserve the landscape and natural environment. Together, they cover 20% of the land surface of Wales and have a resident population of over 80,000 people. Each National Park Authority is a free-standing body within the local government framework.
The Welsh Pony and Cob is a group of four closely-related horse breeds including both pony and cob types, which originated in Wales. The four sections within the breed society for the Welsh breeds are primarily distinguished by height, and also by variations in type: the smallest Welsh Mountain Pony ; the slightly taller but refined Welsh Pony of riding type popular as a children's show mount; the small but stocky Welsh Pony of Cob Type, popular for riding and competitive driving; and the tallest, the Welsh Cob, which can be ridden by adults. Welsh ponies and cobs in all sections are known for their good temperament, hardiness, and free-moving gaits.
The Pottok or Pottoka, is an endangered, semi-feral breed of pony native to the Pyrenees of the Basque Country in France and Spain.
A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses. Feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed, escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild and remained to survive and reproduce there. Away from humans, over time, these animals' patterns of behavior revert to behavior more closely resembling that of wild horses. Some horses that live in a feral state but may be occasionally handled or managed by humans, particularly if privately owned, are referred to as "semi-feral".
Iolo Tudur Williams is a Welsh ornithologist, nature observer, television presenter and author, best known for his BBC and S4C nature programmes, working in both English and his first language of Welsh. After a 14-year career with the RSPB, in 1999 Williams became a full-time TV presenter. He has written a number of books about the natural world.
The Sable Island horse is a small feral horse found on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. It has a horse phenotype and horse ancestors, and is usually dark in colour. The first horses were released on the island in the late 1700s, and soon became feral. Additional horses were later transported to improve the herd's breeding stock. They were rounded up for private use and sale for slaughter, which by the 1950s had placed them in danger of extinction. During the 2018 study, the estimated population was 500 horses, up from the roughly 300 recorded in the 1970s.
William Moreton Condry MA, MSc, was a naturalist who was born in Birmingham, England.
Llanrug is a medium-sized village and community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It lies about 4 miles (6.4 km) to the east of Caernarfon, 7 miles (11 km) south of Bangor and 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Llanberis. It is the largest populated village in the Arfon area of Gwynedd, Wales. The old name of the village was Llanfihangel-y-Rug, derived from Eglwys Sant Mihangel, which is situated about half a mile west of the village.
Fauna of Wales includes marine and land animals, birds and reptiles that are resident, visitors or have been introduced to Wales.
The British primitive goat is a landrace of domestic goat native to Great Britain and Ireland, and is the original goat of the region. It is considered a rare breed, existing as several, isolated feral herds, as some captive populations in zoological parks and nature reserves, and breeding stock on some private farms operated by groups of rare-breed enthusiasts. As few as 1,200 individual British primitives may remain. The variety is also referred to as the British native goat, the old British goat, the old English goat or the British landrace goat, among more specific names It descends from the earliest goats brought to the region in the Neolithic era, around 3,000 BCE. It is classified in the Northern breed group of goats. A population in Northumberland is sometimes referred to as the Cheviot goat. The British primitive is among the foundation stock of some modern standardised breeds, including the Anglo-Nubian goat. The breed is comparatively small, with commensurately low milk production. It is hardy and wiry haired, adapted to rough terrain and weather, and able to subsist and breed on its own without human intervention.
Peter Bishop was an English painter specialising in the mountain landscape of north Wales and was an art historian.
