the best pubs, restaurants, hotels and places to visit
The Gower is one of South Wales’ big tourist attractions. It’s a peninsular just west of Swansea and was the first area in the United Kingdom to be designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It’s a real mix of rugged coastline, glorious beaches, great views and castles.
I was lucky enough to fly around the Gower last summer so some of the photos in this post will give you a great view of some of the great beaches.
We’ve recently had a few days in Mumbles staying at the excellent Patrick’s With Rooms hotel. Mumbles is a great place to visit – it’s right on the seafront with fantastic views right round Swansea Bay. You can promenade around the Bay for several miles if you wish.
Mumbles Village is great for just spending a few hours – it has lots of little shops, quite a few pubs and great cafés and restaurants. There’s a good children’s playground and crazy golf (just opposite Patrick’s) and the kids will love the beach at Bracelet Bay and rock-pools when the tide is out. Note: when the tide is in there’s no beach at all and be warned – the tide comes in quickly here. Check the tides here before you visit.
Following on from yesterday’s post on the the crazy surfers in Langland Bay here’s a good video of some action in from March 2008. Langland is probably one of the easily reachable surfing beaches from Swansea.
I took this picture down in Langland Bay last summer. It’s a favourite spot for surfers in the Gower and the wind was really strong on this day so the surf was up.
I got some good action shots using a long lens.
This guy was quite a way out and I took the picture hand-held so it’s a bit unsharp but the you can see the fear on the guy’s face! Much better than I can do though!
Click on the photo for a better view.
Over the Christmas holiday period we had a trip to Pennard on the Gower. We walked across the Pennard Golf Course to the ruins of Pennard Castle. The ruins date from the 13th century.
If you fancy the walk to the castle then park in Linkside Drive (marked on this map). Park near the village shop.
As you walk across the golf course and the sand dunes then you get a great view across to the headland at Oxwich.
As you walk a bit further then you come to the castle itself. It’s an impressive ruin and is doing well for itself considering that it’s over 700 years old!