Afon Ogwen

The Afon Ogwen is a river in north-west Wales draining from some of the greatest peaks in Snowdonia before discharging to the sea on the eastern side of Bangor, Gwynedd.EtymologyAlthough the spoken form in the local North Wales dialect is Ogwan, and it has also recently been shown that Ogwan is an original form of the name, the form Ogwen is believed to have been mistakenly adopted as a kind of back-formation, because many words ending in -en become -an in the north Wales dialect.The name of the river is recorded as Oguanw in a poem in the Hendregadredd Manuscript. The name is probably a compound word: og + banw = ogfanw. The precise meaning of og is less clear, but it may either be cognate with the Irish Tír na n-Óg or else derive from the Proto-Indo-European *oku .SourcesThe main source of the Ogwen is in Llyn Ogwen, which is situated alongside the A5 road as it starts to descend through Snowdonia. However, the true source of the river lies in the three streams draining into Llyn Ogwen. These are Nant Gwern y Gof, Afon Denau, and Afon Lloer which itself has its source in the upland lake, Ffynnon Lloer.WaterfallsThe Ogwen emerging at the western end of Llyn Ogwen immediately descends cataracts and waterfalls, known as Ogwen Falls in English and Rhaeadr Ogwen in Welsh, before continuing in a north-north-westerly direction down the glaciated Nant Ffrancon valley.