Betws-y-Coed

Betws-y-Coed
A5 trunk road through Betws-y-Coed
Betws-y-Coed
Location within Conwy
Population476 (2011 census)
OS grid referenceSH795565
Community
  • Betws-y-Coed
Principal area
Preserved county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBETWS-Y-COED
Postcode districtLL24
Dialling code01690
PoliceNorth Wales
FireNorth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament

Betws-y-Coed (Welsh: [ˈbɛtʊs ə ˈkoːɨ̯d] ) is a village and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. The village is located near the confluence of the River Conwy and the River Llugwy and is on the eastern edge of Snowdonia. The population of the community as of the 2021 census was 476, a decline on the previous census.

The name of the village means "prayer-house in the woods", and a monastery is known to have existed in the area in the sixth century. The oldest parts of St Michael's Church, which lies to the north-east of the village, date to the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Betws-y-Coed remained a small agricutural community until the nineteenth century, when a lead mining industry developed and part of Thomas Telford's London to Holyhead road (the present A5) was constructed through the village in 1815, followed by a railway station in 1865. These new transport links encouraged new developments to serve tourists, such as the Church of St Mary, and the area became popular with landscape artists.