Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, or Llanfair P.G. as it is more easily…read moreknown (and said), is famous for having the longest place name in the UK. It also holds the record for the railway station with the longest name in the world, and its web-site now holds the record for the longest valid url on the web, with the name of the upper village (see below). The translation into English is: "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave".
The village was probably only known as Llanfairpwll until the 1800s, although some references include the longer Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. However, according to local legend, either a local tailor or the local Vicar decided that lengthening the name would be a good marketing ploy for tourism, tapping into the newly burgeoning tourist trade for visiting the Snowdonia area.
And so the longer version came about. A crazy idea, but boy, has it worked. The railway station, opened in 1848, adopted the longer version on its name-boards, although timetables and destination boards have always shown 'LlanfairPG'.
I was taken to the station as a child, and bought a platform ticket with the name spelled out in full (which I still have, of course). The station is now a James Pringle Weavers woollen shop, and this has become the main stopping point for tourists in the village. There is a wide range of tourist momentos, of course, including the inevitable T-shirts and mugs.
The web-site has a wonderful facility to teach you how to say the word, breaking down the Welsh vowel and consonant sounds into easy chunks, and you can hear it spoken, too. Apparently - and this is new to me - the upper village has the name, "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf", the suffix '-uchaf' being Welsh for upper. But, in my view, that's being silly.
Does this also qualify as the longest place name on Qype?
