UKC

My Dad knows a lot about North Wales, but very little about climbing.

When he was looking at my new North Wales Rock guidebook, he was mystified to see that the area referred to as Gogarth is the coast of Anglesey: he's always known the Great Orme / Llandudno area as Gogarth and produced maps to back this up: none mention the name Gogarth in connection with the Anglesey coast, all use it to refer to the Llandudno area only.

Can anyone explain why this is?

Thanks in advance and sorry if this is an offensively naive question!

Mike

In reply to MikeCheque:

That confused me too. I used to assume people were talking about the cliffs on the Great Orme when they talked about Gogarth. Then when I discovered that Gogarth was on Anglesey I assumed it was just me getting muddled.

In reply to MikeCheque:

The OS map shows North Stack and South Stack separated by Gogarth Bay.

Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Cheers Chris! The map you refer to must be newer or a larger scale than my Dad's.

Got your 'Northern England' guide for Christmas, by the way. Nice work!

In reply to MikeCheque:

Cheers, I was very pleased with it.


Chris

In reply to MikeCheque:

On Anglesey you have `Gogarth Bay`, and the headland around the Ormes on Llandudno is called `Craig Pen Gogarth`.

I think that`s right, if not I`m sure I`ll be corrected !

In reply to mr mills:

Haven't checked, but I think that is correct.

In reply to MikeCheque: The Orme is also referred to as Gogarth. Round the corner from me in Bangor is "Orme Road" which is also called "Lon Y Gogarth" (it's so named as you can see the Great Orme from it.

In reply to MikeCheque:

There's all sorts of things like this. Plenty of examples of climbers calling a crag something completely different to everyone else. I'm not sure walkers with the OS map would know what Gimmer Crag was. Think they'd point you in the direction of Loft Crag I think. Might be wrong. Ho hum.

In reply to Ghastly Rubberfeet:

The element garth (promontory), which referes to a ridge of land, occurs in names such as Tre-garth, Talgarth and Penarth. You might think that garth occurs in the name in the names Trwyn y Gogarth (Little Orme) and Pen y Gogarth (Great Orme) in the Llandudno area, but it is likely that gogerdd (slope) was its original form - as occurs in Gogerddan (little slope) in Ceredigion.

Out of interest

In reply to Bulls Crack: Certainly the members of Lundy Bird watching society hadn't got a clue where Landing Craft Bay was in spite of them studying and ringing manx sheerwaters there for several years, when we were there in Sept working with them.

In reply to Al Evans:

I had the same experience with the Llandudno Magic ircle when I told them about the Turdon Gorge!

In reply to Bulls Crack:

Thanks for that. My Dad loves that sort of stuff!

In reply to MikeCheque: Gog is north!! i think!! and arth is vilage!!

In reply to Bulls Crack:

Penarth means Bear's Head.
Arth = Bear
Pen = Head

If you look at the town crest you can see the bears on either side, the local wetherspoons pub is called the Bear's Head and there is a Venture Scout Group called Bears.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I can vaguely remember King Arthur's shield bearing a Bear's Head design, but I could be mistaken.

N

In reply to MorganPreecey:

Gogledd is North. In the South you will sometimes hear those from North Wales referred to as 'Gogs' which is a shortened term from Gogledd.
Village is Pentref and as for Arth, see above!

N

In reply to Nigel R Lewis: Im from south wales and yer we call them gogs haha