Swansea CAM - Earlier Photographs

ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPHS.
Saturday morning 5th May 2001.
Three Cliffs and Pennard Castle, Gower..

Weather: mainly hazy sunshine. Temp: 13C

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind
permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland

Our walk starts from the National Trust Car Park at Southgate. Because of the Foot and Mouth Disease restrictions, access to the land at the top of the cliffs is restricted to a marked path along which, placed at intervals, are notices warning walkers that the fences are electrified and to stay inside the fences.

The purpose of all this is to keep people and livestock apart which is a sensible precaution but the electrified fence as far as sheep are concerned is completely ineffective. It has only one wire and it is too high to prevent sheep walking underneath onto the pathway.

We leave the cliff top path and make our way down the gorse covered hillside to the small valley which leads down to Pobbles Bay..

Ahead, you can see the limestone cliffs on the western side of Three Cliffs Bay .

Here at Pobbles we pick our way over the stones to reach the beach. The tide is out so we can walk along the wet sand following the shoreline to the next bay which is Three Cliffs.

The high rock you can see is the first and largest of three limestone rocks that gives Three Cliffs Bay its name. From this angle the two other rocks are not visible... what is visible, however, are a lot of people around the base of the rock. What are they doing there?

Now we know the answer. This is the seaward face of the three cliffs and when the tide is out makes a really good place for a spot of rock climbing. I've seen rock climbers in various places around the Gower coast but never have I seen so many in one place before.

This bit looks tricky.

Leaving the rock climbers to get on with it we go through the hole in the cliffs to the beach on the other side. .

A completely new scene appears before us as we emerge from the passage through the rock .

A little further on we glance back to a landward view of the climber decorated cliffs.

On the other side of the bay is the Great Tor, another quite impressive chunk of limestone. .

At this point we leave the beach to visit Pennard Castle. First we have to do a little bit of rock climbing of our own in order to get off the beach. The path leading to the castle is at the top of this sand hill......

Small patches of violets grow in the sand..

We have reached the path at the top of the hill and you can see the remains of the 13th century Norman castle.

High above the valley floor, the castle would have been easy to defend.

The present day ruins are the remains of a stone castle built by William de Breos III during the consolidation of the Norman Conquest in the later years of the 13th century. It was lived in for only a short time. Soon after its completion, a succession of gales in the 14th century caused a gradual encroachment of sand making the castle less inhabitable and by the end of that century it had been abandoned.

At one time this hole in the castle wall was a window and the occupants of the castle must have looked out on a scene very much as we see it today. .

Outside the castle walls we look down into the valley at the Pennard Pill winding snakelike to the sea. .

Although this area is open for walkers, cattle are still to be found grazing on the hillside..

This is a good spot to stop for refreshment. Feeling a bit weary, I took this photo from a fully reclining position and it wasn't until later that I discovered I had quite literally put my foot in it.

The path we are following leads us back towards Three Cliffs. Down below a small group of climbers are just standing about and there doesn't appear to be so much activity as there was earlier. Perhaps they have all gone home for lunch and I shall do the same........'bye.