Rhyl (Welsh: Y Rhyl) is a seaside town located on the Irish Sea, in the administrative county of Denbighshire and the traditional county of Flintshire, North Wales, United Kingdom, at the mouth of the River Clwyd (Welsh: Yr Afon Clwyd). Once an elegant Victorian resort, a large influx of people from Liverpool and Manchester after World War II had a huge impact on the Welsh language in the town and surrounding area. Rhyl railway station has through trains to and from London, Crewe, Cardiff and Manchester.
This resort town has a population of about 27,000.
Rhyl Football Club is currently one of the most successful teams in the Welsh football pyramid -- in the 2003-04 season they won the Welsh Premiership championship, the Welsh Cup and the Welsh League Cup, and were losing finalists for the FAW Premier Cup.
Rhyl's most famous monument was the Rhyl Pavilion - an elegant ornate building with five domes, which was destroyed in the 1970s. But Rhyl's current top attraction is the 80 metre high Sky Tower on Rhyl promenade, which opened in 1993. The promenade also features the popular Rhyl Suncentre - an indoor leisure swimming pool featuring an indoor monorail as well as Europe's first ever indoor surfing pool, as well as SeaQuarium, Rhyl Children's Village theme park and the Fairground. There was once a laser quest and bowling establishment but this has since burnt down.
Marine Lake also used to be a popular tourist destination with fair ground rides and even a zoo many years ago. Nowadays, the Marine lake is home to the miniature steam train that travels around the lake, a playground and numerous watersports clubs.
In a bid to boost the decline in tourism, a million button badges were sent to Japan in May 2005 with the website address www.rhyl.com in an attempt to boost oversea tourism. There were many detractors of the idea; they suggested that money spent trying to improve the decaying Victorian infrastructure would be a far better option. Also due to the poor website design, the campaign was poorly recieved and to this date Rhyl has never had a visitor from Japan.
Rhyl also contains many brass bands, which entertain the town's many tourists, including the Rhyl Silver band, the scout and guide band and the Salvation army band. The Rhyl Silver band was formed in 1878 by local businessman David Owen Jones and is still going strong, with family members having played throughout the band's history and currently still doing so. They have performed in such prestigious venues as the Royal Albert Hall and entertained Royalty in recent years.
Rhyl hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1892, 1904, 1953 and 1985, as well as an unofficial National Eisteddfod event in 1870.
Famous former inhabitants of Rhyl include The Alarm front man Mike Peters, number-cruncher and Countdown co-presenter Carol Vorderman, Hollywood director Sara Sugarman and ex Sons of Selina frontman, now radio presenter and music guru Neil Crud. Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, was born in the town.
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