The quake occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning at 4.15am – the epicenter of the quake was off 9 miles off the coast in the Irish Sea.
The tremour was reportedly felt in buildings in Ireland in the counties of Carlow, Kildare and Wicklow.
“This was a larger-than-average earthquake. We get around one a year of this size. People have reported hearing an initial loud banging, followed by rumbling and intense shaking.” said a representative from the British Geological Survey.
Peter Wilkinson of Penrallt Coastal Campsite near Snowdonia in north Wales told Sky News “I would describe it as like hearing a large thud – like a wardrobe falling over…others in the campsite have been talking about it a lot more. They said it felt like the earth was moving around and was really quite scary.”
Graham Williams from a village in north Wales near Bangor told BBC Radio Wales “I woke up to a cracking sound and realised the house was shaking. I could hear a low rumble for about 15 seconds and then it stopped.”
“This is the most seismic place in the UK and over history there have been a long series of earthquakes in this part of North Wales,” said Dr Roger Musson of the BGS.
Previously the Llyn Peninsula in Wales was hit by the UK’s largest recorded on-shore earthquake back in 1984, which measured at 5.4.
Main image: Snowdonia National Park