Welcome to Abergele
Abergele is an old Roman trading town, situated near the north Wales coast between the popular holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in the county borough of Conwy, traditional county of Denbighshire. Its northern suburb of Pensarn lies on the Irish Sea coast and is known for its beach, where a ghost ship has been sighted. Abergele and Pensarn railway station serves both resorts.
The town itself lies on the A55 road and is known for Gwrych Castle. The town is surrounded by wooded hillsides, which contain caves with rare lesser horseshoe bats. The highest hill is Moelfre Isaf (1038ft) to the south of the town.
Abergele (including Pensarn) has a population of around 18,000 and is part of the Abergele/Rhyl/Prestatyn urban area with a population of 64,026 (2001 census). Approximately 29% of Abergele has a significant knowledge of Welsh, but the town has a large population of people from England, namely Manchester, Liverpool and the Midlands. The town also has a number of satellite villages such as Saint George, Betws yn Rhos and Rhyd-y-foel.
Famous people from Abergele include Lisa Scott-Lee of Steps who went to school at Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan. The artist Ralph Steadman, an associate of the author Hunter S Thompson was raised in the town.
Recent genetic studies on the y-chromosomes of men in Abergele have revealed that there is a substantial percentage of North African DNA in Abergele. Genetic marker e3b was found to average at 38.97% in male y-chromosomes in Abergele. Genetic marker e3b is found at its highest concentrations in North Africa at 75% but at much lower percentages in Northern Europe at less than 5%. The reason for the high levels of e3b in Abergele is most likely due to the heavy Roman presence in Abergele as most of the Romans that came to Britain did not come from Italy rather from other parts of the empire such as North Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe. Above average levels of genetic marker e3b have been found in other towns in Britain that were known to have had a heavy Roman presence.