The castle. The nursery. The app that reached Australia. 850 years of the Eisteddfod - and over thirty years of National Lottery players making it possible

On Christmas Day 1176, Rhys ap Gruffudd summoned the poets and musicians of Wales and beyond to a feast at his castle in Cardigan. It is the first ever recorded Eisteddfod. Eight hundred and fifty years later, that tradition is still alive - and among those who have helped keep it that way are the National Lottery players who, week after week, make good causes possible across Wales.

The castle where it began
Cardigan Castle, the birthplace of the Eisteddfod tradition, was, by the early 2000s, a crumbling ruin. The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund invested over £7.25 million to restore it. Today it is a thriving cultural hub and, this year, the National Eisteddfod was awarded a £238,100 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver Prosiect 1176, including a five-metre giant puppet of Lord Rhys created by Small World Theatre in west Wales. The puppet journeyed from Lord Rhys's grave at St Davids Cathedral through Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, drawing thousands onto the streets, before arriving at the Eisteddfod Maes on Wednesday 5 August. The Maes at Llantwd sits eight minutes’ drive from Cardigan, so 850 years on the festival is being held on the doorstep of the town where it began. The castle where it began was saved by National Lottery players. The celebration of its 850th anniversary is funded by them too.

The festival itself
Arts Council of Wales, as the primary National Lottery funder of the festival, has invested over £1.8 million across 43 grants, supporting the artistic programme, heritage conservation, and the accessibility work that ensures the festival belongs to everyone. The Eisteddfod that up to 170,000 people visit each year is what it is because of National Lottery players.

The language it is held in
That support reaches well beyond the festival field. National Lottery players have funded Welsh-medium nurseries in every local authority in Wales, the Mentrau Iaith network, and the Urdd residential centres where young people live their Welsh together.

Sport Wales has invested over £7.1 million in Urdd Gobaith Cymru, Wales's largest youth organisation, funding sport, residential experiences, and Eisteddfod yr Urdd, one of the world's biggest youth festivals. Because of National Lottery players, Welsh isn't just the language of the stage. It's the language of the sports hall, the campfire, and the mountain.

The app that reached Australia
And sometimes, the impact of a grant travels further than anyone imagined. When Menter Iaith Fflint a Wrecsam received support from the National Lottery Community Fund to develop the Magi Ann app - a simple idea to help non-Welsh speaking parents read Welsh books with their children - nobody anticipated what would follow. The app has been downloaded over 400,000 times by families in Australia, in America, Japan, and the Isle of Man. It won the National Lottery Awards Best Education Project in 2017 and was adapted into Cornish to support language revival in Cornwall. A community grant in north-east Wales. A reach that crossed continents.

Andrew White, Chair of the Wales National Lottery Forum and Director of The National Lottery Heritage Fund in Wales, says:

“The Welsh language isn’t a relic to be preserved behind glass - it is a living language, spoken by families, sung at festivals, and played in sports halls. What National Lottery players have made possible is extraordinary: from restoring the castle where the Eisteddfod tradition was first recorded, to funding the nurseries and creative projects that help Welsh grow and thrive. On behalf of everyone whose work it has supported, it’s because of you, National Lottery players, this story continues.”

Over thirty years, National Lottery players have invested over £36 million in the Welsh language and over £2.6 billion in Wales as a whole. The 2026 Eisteddfod takes its name Y Garreg Las from Pembrokeshire's local bluestone: the very stone carried from the Preseli hills to Stonehenge 5,000 years ago. From prehistoric stone to the Eisteddfod stage, from a crumbling castle to a community nursery, from a small grant in Flintshire to a download in Australia - because of National Lottery players, that thread runs unbroken.

The whole National Lottery family in Wales is on the Maes all week from 1 to 8 August.

You can find us in the corner of the stands square, next to Y Babell Lên. All four National Lottery distributors and Allwyn are there across the week, with a different distributor leading the programme each day and funded projects joining us on the stand throughout.

Some of what is happening on the stand, most days from 10:00 to 16:00:

• Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 August: drop in to meet the teams behind the four National Lottery distributors working across Wales.
• Monday 3 August: the team from Cardigan Castle on 850 years since that first Eisteddfod, the Welsh Wildlife Centre on the Teifi Marshes, and activities with Area 43, Menter Gorllewin Sir Gâr and Foothold Cymru.
• Tuesday 4 August: the Capeli Cymru national census of Welsh chapels, an environmental funding showcase, creative activities for children with Blue Green Cymru, and a talk on Owain a Henry, the new co-production starring Michael Sheen, with director Steffan Donnelly and playwright Gary Owen.
• Wednesday 5 August: a conversation with a National Lottery winner from Wales on what a win really changes, and an afternoon of hands-on activities with funded projects from across Wales.
• Thursday 6 August: a morning dance session with Krystal Lowe, a first look at Gwenllian, the new Theatr Cymru production with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a performance from Gareth Bonello, traditional Welsh dancing with TwmpDaith, a panel on how street and spectacle theatre grew up on the Maes, and a session on the arts and wellbeing.
• Friday 7 August: a Sport Wales takeover, with VR boxing, basketball, boccia and fencing delivered with Disability Sport Wales, and movement and circus activities outside with Sport Pembrokeshire.
• Saturday 8 August: a last chance to meet the distributor teams before the week closes.

The full What’s On guide for The National Lottery stand, in Welsh and English, is available at lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/eisteddfod. Come and say hello.