Seven Wonders of Wales

40km
25miles

7

Gresford bells

6

Llangollen Bridge

5

St Winefride's Well

4

Overton
yew trees

3

Snowdon

2

Wrexham
steeple

1

Pistyll Rhaeadr

   

Locations of the Seven Wonders of Wales, numbered as they appear in the list.

The Seven Wonders of Wales (Welsh : Saith Rhyfeddod Cymru) is a traditional list of notable landmarks in north Wales, commemorated in an anonymously written rhyme: ^[1]

Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple,
Snowdon's mountain without its people,
Overton yew trees, St Winefride's wells,
Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells.

The rhyme is usually supposed to have been written sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century by an English visitor to North Wales. ^[2] The specific number of wonders may have varied over the years: the antiquary Daines Barrington, in a letter written in 1770, refers to Llangollen Bridge as one of the "five wonders of Wales, though like the seven wonders of Dauphiny, they turn out to be no wonders at all out of the Principality". ^[3]

There are also other shorter versions of the rhyme, including: ^[4]

Gresford bells and Wrexham steeple,
Llangollen vale and all the people.

A similar version to this included the last line as "Llangollen Bridge and all Welsh people". ^[5]

The seven wonders comprise:

Image	Wonder	Location	Date	Notable Features
	Pistyll Rhaeadr	Near Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powys	n/a	A tall waterfall, falling 240 ft (73 m) in three stages
	St Giles' Church Eglwys San Silyn	Wrexham	16th-century	The 16th-century tower of St Giles' Church in Wrexham can be seen for miles
	Overton yew trees Coed ywen Owrtyn	Overton-on-Dee, Wrexham County Borough	Planted at different times, ~3rd–12th century	21 yew trees at St Mary's Church
	St Winefride's Well Ffynnon Wenffrewi	Holywell, Flintshire	AD 660 (as pilgrimage site), constructions date to medieval	Historically claimed to have healing waters
	Llangollen Bridge Pont Llangollen	Llangollen, Denbighshire	Current construction dates from around 1500	Site of the first stone bridge to span the Dee
	Bells of All Saints' Church, Gresford Clychau Gresffordd	Gresford, Wrexham County Borough	13th-century	The church bells are listed for their purity and tone
	Snowdon Yr Wyddfa	Snowdonia, Gwynedd	n/a	Highest mountain in Wales at 3,560 ft (1,085 m)

See also

• Seven Natural Wonders of the UK
• Seven Wonders of the World

Notes and references

1. A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to North Wales (Southern section) via Google Books
2. Wales on Britannia: Seven Wonders of Wales Archived 2006-06-18 at the Wayback Machine , britannia.com
3. Letter to Mr. Gough, July 20, 1770, in Illustrations of the literary history of the eighteenth century, v.5, Nichols, Son, and Bentley, 1828, p.583
4. Overton in days gone by via Google Books
5. The Wrexham Advertiser, 7 May 1870 via the Welsh Newspaper Archive