Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire (Sir Fynwy) is a traditional county of south-eastern Wales. It borders Glamorgan to the west, Brecknockshire to the north-west and the English counties of Herefordshire to the north-east and Gloucestershire to the east. To the south, the county is bound by the mouth of the River Severn as it broadens into the Bristol Channel.

The county town namesake is Monmouth, a historic market town with Roman roots famed for the Monnow Bridge. The largest settlement within the county is the city of Newport with a population of around 150,000. Rumney and St Mellons (suburbs of the Welsh capital Cardiff, which is otherwise in Glamorgan), are also in Monmouthshire. Abergavenny is found in the north-west of the county and is sometimes described as the "gateway to Wales".

The status of Monmouthshire was somewhat indeterminate between the Act of Union of 1536, which completed the union of Wales and England, and 1974. According to the 1536 Act, Monmouthshire was accounted an English county, but so Welsh was it in culture, tradition and feeling that it nevertheless was treated with Wales in an awkward entity referred to as 'Wales and Monmouthshire'. In sporting, cultural and artistic fields, as well as in popular parlance and belief, it was always seen as part of Wales and this was formalized in the local government reforms of 1974.

Geography

A south-easterly portion of the Black Mountains are found in the north of the Monmouthshire, near the borders with Brecknockshire and Herefordshire. Chwarel y Fan, Monmouthshire's county top (highest point) at 2,228 ft (679 meters) above sea level, forms part of this range and is situated in the county's northernmost reaches.