Reading the Map: Welsh Place Names in Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire's map is bilingual, and not evenly. Names in the north are overwhelmingly Welsh; names in the south are English and Flemish. The boundary between them is the Landsker line, drawn by Norman castles in the twelfth century and still legible eight hundred years later. It's why you get Llanrhian and Cwm-yr-Eglwys in the north and Templeton and Wiseman's Bridge in the south, twenty miles apart.

Learn eight words and most of the northern map starts explaining itself.

The eight that do the work

Aber — river mouth. Abereiddi, Abercastle, Aberbach. If a name starts with Aber, a stream meets the sea there.

Cwm — valley, usually steep and narrow. Cwm-yr-Eglwys is "valley of the church", which is exactly what it is: a valley with the ruin of a church in it.

Carn or carreg — rock, cairn, stone. Carn Llidi, Carn Ingli, Carreg Samson. In the Preselis, Carn nearly always means a rocky outcrop on a hilltop.

Traeth — beach. Traeth Llyfn is "smooth beach".

Porth — harbour or cove. Porthgain, Porthclais, Porth-y-rhaw.

Llan — originally an enclosure, then a church settlement. Llanrhian, Llandudoch. The bit after it is usually the saint.

Ynys — island. Pen — head, top or end, as in Pen-y-Fan on Dinas Head.

Tafarn — pub. Useful.

Saying them

Welsh spelling is consistent, which makes it easier than English once you know the rules.

• ll — no English equivalent. Put your tongue where you'd start an L and blow air round the sides. A soft "hl" gets you close enough that nobody minds.
• dd — like the "th" in this.
• f — like an English v. ff — like an English f. So Dyffryn is "duffrin".
• w — usually a vowel, "oo". Cwm is "coom".
• y — "uh" in most positions, "ee" in the last syllable.
• ch — as in Scottish loch.
• Stress almost always falls on the second-to-last syllable.

A few you'll need:

• Cwm-yr-Eglwys — coom-uhr-EG-loois
• Dyffryn — DUFF-rin
• Porthgain — porth-GINE
• Llanrhian — hlan-RHEE-an
• Mynydd Preseli — MUN-ith pre-SEL-ee
• Cilgerran — kil-GER-an (hard g)
• Abereiddi — ab-er-AY-thee

Two things worth knowing

Some places have two names in genuine current use, not a translation: Newport is Trefdraeth, Fishguard is Abergwaun, St Dogmaels is Llandudoch. Road signs carry both.

And nobody will mind if you get it wrong. Trying is the bit that counts, and in the north of the county you'll hear Welsh spoken in the shop and at the bar — around a fifth of Pembrokeshire speaks it, far more in the Preselis and the Gwaun Valley.