Rhyl

Rhyl (rɪl; Y Rhyl, ə ˈr̥ɨl) is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. The town lies within the historic boundaries of Denbighshire, on the north-east coast of Wales at the mouth of the River Clwyd. To the west is Kinmel Bay and Towyn, to the east Prestatyn, and to the southeast Rhuddlan and St Asaph. At the 2011 Census, Rhyl had a population of 25,149, with Rhyl–Kinmel Bay having 31,229. Rhyl forms a conurbation with Prestatyn and its two outlying villages, the Rhyl/Prestatyn Built-up area, whose 2011 population of 46,267 makes it North Wales's most populous non-city. Rhyl was once an elegant Victorian resort town but suffered rapid decline around the 1990s and 2000s but has since been improved by major regeneration around and in the town. Early documents refer to a dwelling in the area named Ty'n Rhyl ("Rhyl croft"), and a manor house with that name still exists in the oldest part of the town. Its Welsh orthography has proved difficult for English writers to transliterate as Rhyls opening voiceless alveolar trill is uncommon in the English language (represented in modern Welsh by the digraph 'Rh'). As such the name has appeared in English texts as Hulle (1292), Hul (1296), Ryhull (1301), Hyll (1506), Hull (1508), yr Hyll (1597), Rhil (1706), Rhûl (1749), Rhul (1773) Rhyll (1830) and Rhyl (1840). The etymonic origin of the word Rhyl has been the subject of debate for more than a century. It has been suggested that it derives from a contraction of Yr Heol ("The Road"). However, this derivation is problematic as it is thought that no road of significance passed through the area before the name was already extant. Another suggested etymology, that the name is a hybrid of an unfamiliar English word ("hill") within Welsh syntax (Yr Hyl becoming Yr Rhyl) is considered highly unlikely as the town is situated on coastal marshland, with no hills in the vicinity. One etymology that gained popularity in the twentieth century suggests that the original dwelling of Ty'n Rhyl derived from Tŷ'n yr haul (House in the Sun/House of Sunshine).