The UK's town with the longest place name celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Despite the landmark occasion, very few can pronounce what is arguably the toughest – and longest – name for a town in Europe, “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”.

This St David's Day, North Wales is challenging men and women across the country to give the Welsh language a go (go goch)!

The Isle of Anglesey – famed for its landscape and the first home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – and has teamed up with the Nant Gwrtheyrn Language School to give visitors all the help they need to crack the tongue twisting town's name, to encourage Brits to learn a little piece of the Welsh language in the hope they'll start exploring more of what the country has to offer.

On March 1st (St David's Day) they're asking Brits to upload videos footage of themselves saying the town name using the hashtag #HaveaGoGoGoch. They hope the activity will add to the celebrations of the day and encourage people to visit the town and neighbouring  areas within North Wales.

Julia Hughes-Roberts, Chair of The Isle of Anglesey Tourism Association, said: “This is a landmark year for a town that very few in the UK can actually say. We don't want people to be intimidated though, we want everyone to have some fun this St David's Day and help mark an anniversary that's special for the whole country.”

The unusual place name, known locally in Anglesey as LlanfairPG, contains  58 characters and holds the accolade of being the longest place name in Europe and the second longest official one-word place name in the world.

Julia continues: “This guide is a fun way to get people trying the Welsh language. We hope people up and down the country will join the celebrations on St David's Day and have a go go goch and come and visit this amazing town! ”

The activity follows a recent campaign devised by VisitBritain to attempt to attract Chinese tourists to the UK, where it released pictures of 16 places in Wales on Chinese social media for the masses to examine and to describe in their own words.

Healthy-lung Village was the phrase devised to describe Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - because you need good lung power to produce it!

Julia concludes: “The recent activity by Visit Britain further demonstrates how difficult it can be for non-Welsh speakers to pronounce certain towns and attractions. Hopefully this initiative will help visitors embrace the national language and have some fun along the way!”

The long form of the name was invented for promotional purposes in the 1860s. The name means: Parish [church] of [St.] Mary (Llanfair) [in] Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel [township] (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the parish [church] of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch).

Holidays with a Welsh language twist are springing up across North Wales. The iconic French-inspired Chateau Rhianfa in Anglesey now offers a 90-minute Welsh starter lesson and Nant Gwrtheyrn on the Llyn Peninsula offers in depth Welsh language courses in a lost mining village.

For further information visit www.visitanglesey.co.uk

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For further press information, please contact Owen LaBeck on 0161 238 9007 or olabeck@webershandwick.com