The Ogwen Valley, known in Welsh as Dyffryn Ogwen, lies mostly in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, with its upper reaches extending into Conwy county borough, to the south of Bangor. It is bordered on one side by the Glyderau mountain range and on the other by the Carneddau, with the River Ogwen flowing between them, and forms part of Snowdonia National Park. The valley's economy historically depended on slate quarrying, which declined sharply from the 1960s and left the area reliant on mountain sheep farming, with unemployment around 20 percent; its slate landscape was included in the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. Its population has fallen from more than 20,000 in the early twentieth century to about 6,500 today, three-quarters of whom speak Welsh, and it now serves as a recreational hub for hikers, climbers and campers.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.