May 28, 2012

The Longest Town Name In Britain


Welsh is not an easy tongue to pronounce for most but the 58 letter long town name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch would take even a phonetics expert to Olympic levels. Located on the island of Anglesey in North Wales this Celtic tongue twister is also one of the longest place names in the world.

In English the name means: St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio with a red cave.

The village is also called Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and was given its longer name in the 1860s to snare the honor of having the longest train station name in Britain.  Today tourists flock here to have their photo taken in front of the sign.

Go on, try and say it in Welsh. I dare you.

2 comments:

Fly Girl said...

Welsh is really not easy but I think that sign is cool.

Wendy said...

I'm half Welsh and it doesn't help when it comes to saying this name.