Wales, United Kingdom Photos - National Geographic

Whitesands Beach Near St. David’s Head
Photograph by Jim Richardson
Seen from a rocky hilltop, low cliffs frame Whitesands Beach on the West Pembrokeshire coast in Wales. Situated west of England on the island of Great Britain, Wales has 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) of coastline along the Irish Sea, a mountainous interior, and breathtaking pastoral beauty. Comparable in size to Massachusetts, Wales is a regionally diverse land rich in Celtic history.
Pentre Ifan Tomb
Photograph by Andrew Henderson
Showing similarities to Stonehenge, this tomb at Pentre Ifan, in the Preseli Mountains of southwestern Wales, predates the famous monument by more than a thousand years. The mountains have long been identified as the site that yielded Stonehenge’s oldest stones.
Caernarfon Castle
Photograph by Jim Richardson
At twilight, the illuminated outer walls of Caernarfon Castle loom over motorboats moored at the mouth of the Seiont River in northern Wales. Edward I began construction of Caernarfon Castle in 1283, and in 1969, it famously served as the site of the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.
St. David’s Cathedral
Photograph by Jim Richardson
A wrought-iron entrance gate with a seal opens onto a path leading to St. David’s Cathedral in St. David’s, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The cathedral lies on the site of the sixth-century monastery of St. David.
Nightlife Scene
Photograph by Vincent J. Musi
Two men wearing dragon-emblazoned capes are part of the nightlife scene in a town in Wales. The stylized red dragon appears on the Welsh flag against a split background of green and white. Resurging national pride in an ancient Celtic heritage has contributed to the revival of written and spoken Welsh, one of the oldest living languages in Europe.
Clock Tower in Machynlleth
Photograph by Vincent J. Musi
In the midst of a storm, sunlight floods the center of the small market town of Machynlleth, the clock tower a visible architectural landmark. Machynlleth is the seat of Wales’s first parliament, convened in 1404 by Welsh national hero Owain Glyndwr, who led an unsuccessful revolt against the English crown.
Scenic Pastures Near Monmouth
Photograph by Vincent J. Musi
This aerial photo captures a view of partially sunlit pastures bordered by groves and hedgerows near Monmouth in southeastern Wales. Farmers attempt to earn a living raising sheep and cattle, which speckle pastures in the foreground, but some are selling their land to retirees and vacationers, altering the familiar landscape.
Holiday Town of Porthdinllaen
Photograph by Cary Wolinsky
Porthdinllaen, on the Lleyn Peninsula in northern Wales, is a favorite destination for tourists and yachting enthusiasts. The peninsula, site of numerous coastal towns recently developed as resorts, juts into Cardigan Bay from the western edge of Snowdonia National Park.
Penned Sheep
Photograph by Sam Abell
Men gather to inspect penned sheep in Wales. There are more than three times as many sheep as there are human inhabitants in the nation of 2.9 million. Most of the country’s 11 million sheep live in a rugged central region known as the “sheep curtain.”
Fisherman Harvesting Cockles
Photograph by Farrell Grehan
At low tide in the flats of Llanrhidian Sands in southern Wales, a fisherman uses a rake to harvest for cockles at sunset. Cockle-gatherers have long harvested the edible mollusks in Llanrhidian Sands, a marshland located on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea.
Horse Grazing at Sunset
Photograph by Farrell Grehan
A horse grazes in a mist-shrouded pasture near Swansea in southern Wales. Horse-drawn cars provided the world’s first regular passenger rail transport when Swansea was connected in 1807 to a village called The Mumbles, which became a popular resort for Victorian society.