Dolgellau
Dolgellau is a market town and area in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It is generally the county town of the historical area of Merionethshire (Welsh: Meirionnydd, Sir Feirionnydd), which shed its management standing when Gwynedd was produced in 1974. Dolgellau is the main base for climbers of Cadair Idris. Although very little, it is the second largest negotiation in Southern Gwynedd after Tywyn. The area consists of Penmaenpool. The name of the community is of uncertain origin, although dôl is Welsh for "field" or "dale", as well as (y) gelli (soft mutation of celli) means "grove" or "spinney", and is common locally in names for ranches in protected nooks. This would certainly seem to be the most likely derivation, giving the translation "Grove Meadow". It has actually additionally been recommended that the name can stem from words cell, meaning "cell", translating therefore as "Meadow of [monks'] cells", yet this seems much less most likely taking into consideration the history of the name. The earliest tape-recorded spelling (from 1253, in the Study of Merioneth) is "Dolkelew", although a spelling "Dolgethley" dates from 1285. From then up until the 19th century, most punctuations were along the lines of "Dôlgelly" "Dolgelley", "Dolgelly" or "Dolgelli" (Owain Glyndwr's scribe wrote "Dolguelli"). Thomas Pennant utilized the form "Dolgelleu" in his Tours of Wales, as well as this was the form used in the Church Registers in 1723, although it never had much currency. In 1825 the Registers had "Dolgellau", which develop Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt adopted in 1836. While this form might derive from an incorrect etymology, it came to be standard in Welsh as well as is now the basic form in both Welsh as well as English. It was adopted as the main name by the local country district council in 1958. Soon before the closure of the community's train station it presented signs reviewing otherwise Dolgelly, Dolgelley as well as Dolgellau.
