With St David’s Day coming up we’ve made a list of interesting facts about Wales to get you ready to celebrate our wonderful nation…

1. Saint David translates in Welsh to “Dewi Sant”, and he was a Welsh Bishop during the 6th century, later regarded as a saint and as the Patron Saint of Wales.
2. The Seven Wonders of Wales is a list of seven geographic and cultural landmarks in Wales, identified in the late 18th century. All in North Wales, the list includes Snowdon (the highest mountain), the Gresford Bells (the bells in the medieval church of All Saints at Gresford), Llangollen Bridge in Flintshire, the Wrexham Steeple, the Overton Yew trees and Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall.
3. The Welsh phrase,“Cymru am byth”, translates to “Wales forever”.
4. The Welsh anthem, “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” translates to, “Land Of My Fathers”.
5. Wales is the only part of the UK that is not represented on the Union Jack.
6. Wales currently has a population of approximately 3.3 million people.
7. The population of sheep in Wales is four times greater than the population of humans in Wales.
8. Wales has produced some stars including Richard Burton, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Michael Sheen, Tom Jones, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Shirley Bassey, Timothy Dalton and Charlotte Church.
9. The great Mount Everest was in fact named after Welshman, Sir George Everest. from Breconshire.
10. Only a small 21% of the Welsh population can actually speak the native language.
11. Wales is believed to have more castles per square mile than anywhere else in the world.
12. Mr Pryce Jones, from Newtown Montgomeryshire, Wales, created the world’s first Mail Order business.
13. Mr Robert Recorde from Pembrokeshire invented the “equal to” sign.
14. The letters K, Q, V and Z do not appear in the Welsh alphabet.
15. All of the statues that surround Cardiff Castle are of animals.
16. Lawn tennis first appeared in Wales back in the 1800s.
17. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch is the actual name of a town in North Wales which translates as “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave”. It is the longest place name in the world!
18. Marconi’s first radio transmission was in 1897 and was between two points in Wales.
19. The Principality Stadium in Cardiff is home to the largest retractable roof of any sporting arena in the World.
20. Wales is the homeland of the mythical King Arthur.
21. The first official Welsh settler to America, Howell Powell, was from Brecon. He left for Virginia in 1642.
22. The oldest tree in Wales is the Llangernyw Yew in St Digain’s church yard, Llangernyw, near Conwy. It’s approximately 4,000 years old.
23. The great glasshouse in the National Botanical Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire, is the largest single-span glasshouse in the world, measuring 312ft in length and 180ft in width.
24. In 1881 the first lager brewery in Britain was opened in Wrexham by German immigrants.
25. The world’s first message ever sent by radio was transmitted by Guglielmo Marconi on May 11 1897, from Larvernock Point, south of Penarth to a mast on Flat Holm in the Bristolchannel – a grand distance of three miles. The message read “Are you ready?”

Show off your new Welsh knowledge with your friends and family this St David’s Day!