Llanddulas is a fairly large village situated approximately three miles east of Colwyn Bay and two and a half miles west of Abergele, and is seperated from Llanddulas beach by the A5 road.
The first edition of the 25inch maps show that Llanddulas was a far smaller settlement in 1876. It was mainly focused around St. Cynfryd's church (NPRN 400557), which today forms the eastern boundary of the village. Other amenities in Llanddulas in the last quarter of the nineteenth century included a National school for boys and girls, an endowed school for girls, a corn mill and a Baptist chapel (Bethesda - NPRN 7678). A significant source of employment could have been Llanddulas quarries (NPRN 414241), half a mile to the west, where the second focus of settlement at Llanddulas was located. On the north eastern edge of the quarries there were a row of houses called Tai Dulas, a hotel known as the Railway Hotel and Caersalem Welsh Independent chapel (NPRN 7677), which was built in 1868 on the site of former Bryn y felin (NPRN 7676). Little had changed by the quarries when the 4th edition of the 25inch maps was published in 1939, but the area of Llanddulais centred around the church had experienced some expansion. It now had more rows of houses, a playing field and pavilion, a hall, a club and an unnamed inn.
In the twenty-first century, the quarries are no longer mined and are now partially used as a landfill site. Houses have infilled the space between the two formerly separate areas of Llanddulas - the first centred around the church, the second based on the north eastern fringes of the quarry. The church and Caersalem chapel seem to have remained open, although there is no sign of the Railway Hotel. Bethesda chapel closed its doors in 1966 and has been converted for residential use. Amenities in Llanddulas in the twenty-first century include Ysgol Llanddulas, 'a voluntary-controlled church school' educating approximately 160 pupils between the ages of three and eleven. LLanddulas also has a public house called the Valentine Inn; a fish and chips shop; a post office; a petrol station and a caravan park sandwiched between the A5 road and the north Wales coast.
Sources: modern and historic OS maps; google maps; Estyn report on Ysgol Llanddulas published in January 2015
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 9th January 2019.