Beautiful Gower

The Gower Peninsula in all its beauty
For Mary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gower_Peninsula

Gower, or Gwyr in Welsh is the delectable peninsula that runs some 18 miles east from Swansea. The unique landscape composition of limestone headlands, sandy bays, ruined castles, and downs, that has deservedly been set aside as an area of outstanding natural beauty. It is a surprise to find such unspoilt country, basically unexploited.

Geologically Gower is formed by two rocks - limestone and Old Red Sandstone. The limestone forms the cliffs and the coastline on the south, the Old Red Sandstone heaves up from within the limestone in the humpback downs of Cefn Bryn, Rhossili and Llanmadog. The limestone plateau lies at a level of 200 feet, cut by the sea about 1 million years ago and then lifted to its present site. In the Ice Age, the whole area was covered by the glaciers that overrode Gower and Pembrokeshire from the Irish Sea. The final melting of the ice, and the corresponding upliftment of the land, have left their mark in the raised beaches that ring the coast. As the ice disappear, early man appeared.

Gower had yielded impressive evidence of early man in the famous bone caves in the limestone of the south coast and on the open site of Burry Holms. Later, somewhere around 3000BC the westward moving colonists of the megalithic tomb-builders settled in Gower. They left their memorials in the great cromlechs, from Arthur's Stone to Giant's Grave that lie all over the peninsula.




Rhossili is the climax of the 16-miles of sandy beaches, bright limestone headlands and plunging cliffs that form the south coast of the Gower peninsula. The village is just a collection of houses that seem grouped around the church for shelter from the wind that comes straight up the channel from the Atlantic. Lying 200 feet below is the splendid stretch of sand, 5-miles of unspoilt sea-coast that runs from the extraordinary headland of the Worm to the island of Burry Holms.

The Church of St Mary is a typically simple Gower church, with a fine Norman doorway. It contains modern glass and a memorial to P.O. Edgar Evans, the Rhossili man who died with Capt. Scott on the return from the South Pole. The nearby hamlets of Middleton and Pitton are included in the parish but are much more sheltered than Rhossili.

From the church a grand cliff walk goes out to the Worm. On the left is the "Viel" which is the local name for the ancient open-field system, the strips of arable land that are a remarkable survival of the farming methods of the Middle Ages. Worms Head winds out to sea like the serpent the Norseman named it after. The islands are cut off at high tide. The Inner and Outer Heads are connected by the arch of rock called the Devil's Bridge and in high wind the hollow of the Blow Hole, on the north face of the Worm, makes a strange booming that is carried a long way inland. The Worm is now a Nature Reserve.

The sands run to the north from the promontory of the Worm, backed by the bare hill of Rhossili Down, at 632 feet the highest point in the Gower. The hill has numerous prehistoric remains, including the ruined megalithic tombs of the Sweyn's of Swine's Houses, which date from the same period as Arthur's Stone, roughly 2500 B.C. The Old Rectory is the lonely house at the foot of the down, 1-mile from Rhossili facing the sands. It is reputed to be haunted.

The sands of Rhossili also hold curiosities. The bones of the ship that appear at low tide are the ribs of the Helvetia, wrecked in 1887. The most famous of the Rhossili wrecks is that of the "dollar ship". This is thought to have been a South American ship bringing back the dowry of Catherine of Braganza. Quantities of silver coins were uncovered in 1807 and again in 1833. Rhossili Bay was invaded by a silver rush- claims were frantically staked as the tide rose among the diggings. Fortunes were made by the find. One of the Lucas family was reported to have got away unfairly with the bulk of the silver and then fled the country. His ghostly coach is supposed to traverse the sands on wild nights. The bay looks its best when the long line of surf comes rolling in, driven by the south-westerly gales.

The limestone islet of Burry Holms ends Rhossili Bay on the northern side. The island has an Iron Age earthwork aross the middle. There are also traces of a medieval monastic cell - the 6th-century St Cenydd, whose church is in nearby Llangynydd. The automatic lighthouse has replaced the old light on Whiteford Point.

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Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• gower
• peninsula
• south
• wales
• caswell
• bay
• oxwich
• three
• cliffs
• pennard
• southgate
• port
• eynon
• rhossili
• langland
• mewslade
• limeslade

[lpjs75]

As a Gower lad myself, I am sure that the image at 1min 20 sec on this clip is not Gower! Where is it? it looks gorgeous!

[BebingtonGirl]

@lpjs75 Oops oh dear you could be right - how did that get in there !! The images were napped off various Gower sites so I'm afraid I cant tell you :o)

[Eddiethepizzaboy]

@lpjs75 Tenby, i think. A little further west.

[BebingtonGirl]

@Eddiethepizzaboy Thank you - mystery solved !!

[terigower]

almost a prayer part of me is left within the marshes loved as a child and homeless in Essex their imprint is upon me now bringing warmth of tears uncried

the depth of this is beyond your knowledge but is here in this sight and sound

mary

[BebingtonGirl]

@terigower - its not hard to see why this place is so special to you, your heart and soul belong there.

[tolgreen]

...SAW IT MYSELF WITH MY LOVER

...COMING BACK SOON

...AGAIN AND AGAIN

...XXXXX

[gisltome]

This is so sweet, now i know more of what makes Mary so wonderfully special, so deep, and her YT name...Thank you so much for this lovely creation and share. Absolutely beautiful, and even more so because of the loving kind heart and thoughts behind its intentions. The info history is great too...Blessings & hugs, gisl

[BebingtonGirl]

Glad you enjoyed it - thanks for watching

[ulihedi]

nice view of an interesting region, thank you for sharing... enjoyed watching and listening

[BebingtonGirl]

@langsense

Ha ! So my plan worked , just getting my own back :o)

( Twitter I'll say no more )