Porthdinllaen
Porthdinllaen (English Porth Dinllaen), is a small coastal village in the Dwyfor locality within Gwynedd, North Wales, previously in Caernarfonshire.
Port
Porthdinllaen was originally a fishing port, chosen by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as his point of embarkation for Northern Ireland for his railway. Unfortunatly, the location was further west and less accessible than Holyhead, which won the 19th century battle.
The village settled back into its relativly quiet lifestyle, and today is one of the most picturseque fishing villages in North Wales.
Lifeboat station
In the 19th century, North Wales lacked easily passable roads, and so the sea was the easiest way to access many of the communities. Porthdinllaen, on the northern coast of the Llyn peninsula, with it's sheltered east facing bay, became important as a harbour of refuge and a busy port, with over 700 ships passing through the port in 1861. After storms in 1863, the local parish priest wrote to the RNLI to request a lifeboat be positioned in the harbour, with the boat shed and slip commissioned in 1864.
Manned constantly since, Porthdinllaen lifeboat station is the only lifeboat station where Welsh is the normally spoken language of the crew.