Sports and Leisure
Bangor offers a vast range of sport. The University’s Sports & Recreation facilities include the Maes Glas Sports Centre which has three well-equipped fitness rooms, an indoor climbing wall, facilities for badminton, squash, volleyball, basketball, netball, indoor hockey, five-a-side football, table tennis, indoor cricket as well as a purpose built gymnastics hall with a sprung floor. Outdoors there are two tennis courts/multi-purpose training areas, an astroturf pitch for football and hockey, and grassed pitches for rugby and football.
Bangor also has an indoor Swimming Pool complete with water slide and diving boards, all-weather 5-a-side and grass playing fields, a Bowling Green and an outdoor Tennis Club.
Bangor’s St. Deiniol Golf Club, established in 1906 has an 18-hole course, designed by James Braid, the famous golf architect and five times Open Champion. It has spectacular views and offers a warm welcome to visitors. In addition there’s a 9-hole course and driving range at Treborth.
There is fine fishing and crabbing - on shore, at sea, or off the Pier.
For spectators, there’s Bangor City Football Club, Rugby Club and Cricket Club.
With both the National Watersports Centre for Wales at Plas Menai, Caernarfon and the National Mountain Centre at Plas y Brenin, Capel Curig also nearby, you’ll have plenty to do!
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History and Cultures - Cathedral and Quarries
Religious history plays a big part in Bangor’s past. The cathedral has ancient roots – it can be traced back to the 6th century. Bangor’s bond with the cathedral runs deep. Its name derives from the name of the wall (‘Bangor’) that was built around the religious site. |
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About 525AD, some 70 years before Canterbury was founded, St Deiniol settled in the valley where the City now lies. He built an enclosure with a fence made of poles driven into the ground and branches woven between them, the technical name for which was ‘bangor’.
Within this enclosure Deiniol built his church and founded a Celtic monastery. When Deiniol was consecrated bishop in 546, it became a cathedral, the most ancient and continuously occupied cathedral site in the UK today. That is how Bangor got its name and its city status.
In the Middle Ages, the Cathedral became one of the spiritual centres of the independent Principalities of Gwynedd and Wales; a place of worship, bravery and intrigue. The tomb of Owain Gwynedd, a Welsh Prince, lies in Bangor Cathedral, from which pilgrims started on the arduous trip to Bardsey Island on the Llŷn Peninsula - three trips to Bardsey was equivalent to one trip to Rome!
Penrhyn Castle is a magnificent Neo-Norman mansion. Lavishly decorated, it has stunning views, a Victorian walled garden, a fine collection of steam engines and grand master paintings. Completed in its current form in 1836, it was built by the Pennant family, with a fortune made first from sugar, using slave labour in Jamaica, then from slate, which was quarried at nearby Bethesda and shipped around the world from Port Penrhyn in Bangor. It is now owned by the National Trust.
In the City itself there are nature and heritage trails linking the City’s green spaces with its rich architectural heritage. Nearby are protected wildlife and nature sites, from the spectacular drop of the Aber Falls to a number of nature reserves, both woodland and seaside.