Traeth Mawr

The Traeth Mawr (Welsh " Great beach ") is a polder near Porthmadog in North Wales. The area east of the Lleyn Peninsula was originally the Afon Glaslyn estuary, which also extends 12 kilometers into the hinterland to the Pont Aberglaslyn.

In the 18th century the estuary were piecewise reclaimed by dikes smaller land areas. 1798 William bought Madocks ( 1773-1829 ) a piece of land and founded on the place of Tremadog. Between 1808 and 1811 he was a dike built across the estuary and thus separated most of the Ästauars from the sea. This dike is locally called "The Cob " and is about 1.3 kilometers long. About him lead the A487 coast road and the route of the Ffestiniog Railway. The toll charges for road use was lifted by sales of the road to the National Assembly for Wales in 2003.

At the northwestern end of the dike, the city was Porthmadog; at the southeast end is the quarry where the necessary material was recovered. Here also the historic toll house has been preserved.

Outside the dike, the Traeth Mawr combined with the Traeth Bach ( "Little beach " ), the southeastern estuary of the Afon Dwyryd. The polder area is used for agriculture; except lying on the edge of Porthmadog and Tremadog places there are, apart from a few yards, no settlements.

Treath Mawr was also the name of a temporary terminus of the end of Porthmadog southern part of the Welsh Highland Railway.