page_title: Aberdaron
section_title: Governance
hierarchical_section_title: Aberdaron / Governance
caption_attribution_description: English: Wales - Dwyfor District - 1974
context_page_description: Aberdaron is a community, electoral ward and former fishing village at the western tip of the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It lies 14.8 miles west of Pwllheli and 33.5 miles south west of Caernarfon, and has a population of 965. The community includes Bardsey Island, the coastal area around Porthor, and the villages of Anelog, Llanfaelrhys, Penycaerau, Rhoshirwaun, Rhydlios, Uwchmynydd and Y Rhiw. It covers an area of just under 50 square kilometres.
  Y Rhiw and Llanfaelrhys have long been linked by sharing rectors and by their close proximity, but were originally ecclesiastical parishes in themselves. The parish of Bodferin/Bodverin was assimilated in the 19th century. The village was the last rest stop for pilgrims heading to Bardsey Island, the legendary "island of 20,000 saints". In the 18th and 19th centuries it developed as a shipbuilding centre and port. The mining and quarrying industries became major employers, and limestone, lead, jasper and manganese were exported. There are the ruins of an old pier running out to sea at Porth Simdde, which is the local name for the west end of Aberdaron Beach.
context_section_description: Aberdaron, Bardsey Island, Bodferin, Llanfaelrhys and Y Rhiw were civil parishes in the commote of Cymydmaen within Cantref Llŷn, in Caernarfonshire. Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, parishes were grouped into "unions": Pwllheli Poor Law Union was created in 1837. Under the Public Health Act 1848 the area of the poor law union became Pwllheli Rural Sanitary District, which from 1889 formed a second tier of local government under Caernarfonshire County Council. Y Rhiw was absorbed into the smaller Llanfaelrhys in 1886; and under the Local Government Act 1894 the four remaining parishes became part of Llŷn Rural District (Welsh: Dosbarth Gwledig Llŷn). Bodferin, Llanfaelrhys, and parts of Bryncroes and Llangwnnadl, were amalgamated into Aberdaron in 1934. Llŷn Rural District was abolished in 1974, and Bardsey Island was absorbed into Aberdaron to form a community within Dwyfor District in the new county of Gwynedd; Dwyfor was abolished as a local authority area when Gwynedd became a unitary authority in 1996.
  The community now forms an electoral division of Gwynedd Council, electing one councillor; William Gareth Roberts of Plaid Cymru was re-elected in 2008. Aberdaron Community Council has 12 elected members, who represent three wards: Aberdaron De (English: Aberdaron South), Aberdaron Dwyrain (English: Aberdaron East) and Aberdaron Gogledd (English: Aberdaron North). Ten Independent councillors and one from Plaid Cymru were elected unopposed in the 2008 election.
  From 1950, Aberdaron was part of Caernarfon parliamentary constituency. In 2010, the community was transferred to Dwyfor Meirionnydd constituency, represented by Elfyn Llwyd of Plaid Cymru. In the National Assembly for Wales it has, since 2007, formed part of Dwyfor Meirionnydd assembly constituency, represented by Dafydd Elis-Thomas, also of Plaid Cymru, who until 2011 was the Presiding Officer of the assembly.  The constituency forms part of the electoral region of Mid and West Wales.
caption: Between 1974 and 1996, Aberdaron formed part of Dwyfor District.
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