Porthmadog is a bustling town situated on the borders of Snowdonia and the Llyn Peninsula. Most of the town is built upon land reclaimed from the sea nearly 200 years ago by William Madocks, and its prosperity owes much to the slate trade which exported its product all over the world.

The first land to be reclaimed was where the smaller town of Tremadog grew. It was hoped that the new major road being built to link London to Dublin would pass through here on route to Porth Dinllaen. In the event an alternative route was chosen and the new road, the A5, was built to the North and terminated in Holyhead. Tremadog was designed and built by William Madocks and the original buildings can still be seen today in the main square which has changed little. Also sited in Tremadog is the derelict building which was once a prosperous woolen mill for which William Madocks constructed a canal linking the harbour in Porthmadog to a basin where the new housing estate is now situated. Little can be seen of this canal today, look out for it as the main road crosses it outside Ysgol Eifionydd.

Work began on the main embankment, locally called the cob, in 1808. Construction began from both shores and was completed in July of 1811, reclaiming from the sea an area of marsh and sand which at high tide was a treacherous expanse of water nearly a mile wide. The cost of the work was enormous, and when in February of 1812 an onshore gale combined with high spring tides breached the embankment the cost incurred left Madocks virtually bankrupt, the strain also seriously affected his health.

The Glaslyn river had over time gouged a deep channel as it swept down the estuary and this now formed the basis for the new harbour and the beginning of the town of Porthmadog. A new quayside was built and rented to Samuel Holland, owner of one of the Ffestiniog slate quarries. Various schemes were tried to bring the slate of Ffestiniog down to the harbour before, in 1836, it was decided to build a narrow gauge railway. The trains travelled down by gravity with horses travelling in the rear, the horses were then used to pull the empty trucks back up to Ffestiniog.

As a result of the expanding slate trade Porthmadog grew steadily through the middle decades of the nineteenth century, its population growing from 885 in 1821 to over 3000 in 1861. A maritime community sprang up with groups of people putting their savings into the building of schooners that were to travel the world hopfully earning a tidy profit for the owners. Often these voyages ended in tragedy as lives and ships were lost. Sometimes entire families perished as they crewed their own family ships. A more in depth history of the seafarers of the town can be seen in the maritime museum situated on the harbourside.

The commercial future of Porthmadog as a harbour began to decline with the arrival of the Cambrian Railway in 1867, offering an alternative means of transport to the growing industrial towns of England. The last of Porthmadogs fleet of ships had dissapeared by 1945 ending with it an important chapter in the history of the town. The narrow gauge railway still exists and has indeed become world famous, The Ffestiniog Railway, the rest of the harbour has been developed into what is largely holiday accommodation.

There is much still to see of the early development of Porthmadog and there are many guide books available in the town with much more in depth information. The town today is always busy, with an excellent array of shops, eateries and services, and a walk down the friendly High Street is always rewarding.

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