Gower
Standing on a sunny cliff-top in Rhossili, looking out over a sea as smooth as a millpond, it’s easy to understand why Gower was picked to become Britain’s first ever Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Worms Head, one of the most photographed locations in Wales and one of four tidal islands found off the Gower coast, snakes off into the distance. To the north, gulls soar above an enormous strip of golden dunes, and just around the headland is Three Cliff Bay, voted one of the five best views in Britain by Country Life magazine in 2002. Named after the peninsula’s rounded shape – Gower is the anglicised form of the Welsh word gwyr, meaning curved – the area had already been recognised as having significant natural importance even before it became an AONB in 1956. The National Trust first purchased land in Gower in 1933 and now actively manages a total of 2,226 hectares, including 42 kilometres of coastline – almost three quarters of Gower’s coast. In all, the region contains a staggering amount of protected land – 25 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, five Candidate Special Areas of Conservation, three National Nature Reserves, a Special Protection Area, a Ramsar site, three Local Nature Reserves, 23 Wildlife Trust Reserves, 67 Ancient Woodland sites, and one Coed Cadw Reserve. It’s an impressive list, but as Jonathan Mullard, author of New Naturalist Gower and former countryside officer for the AONB, explains “Gower is important because of its diversity. Although it’s probably only about 207 kilometres square, it has Britain’s biggest calcareous dune system, it has one of the biggest freshwater marshes, one of the biggest areas of common land and contains the largest estuary that is wholly in Wales.”But it isn’t merely the diversity of the landscape that marks Gower out as special – it’s the way that these different environments intermingle and allow wildlife to thrive. “There are no sharp divisions between these habitats,” says Mullard. “They merge, and that’s really good for wildlife. So, in Whitford, you’ve got the sea, then the beach, pioneer dunes, mid dunes and rear dunes, then there’s a seepage area, a freshwater marsh strip, saltwater marshland, the estuary and then woodland. There are no hard edges in Gower, which is great because there are too many areas of countryside that have become over-maintained, like intensively managed fields.” There is farming within the area – indeed, agriculture is still a vital part of the local economy – but it is, according to Mullard, “primarily benign and mostly made up of small family farms”. This ethos of traditional land management is echoed in the continued use of common land by the local community – a third of the designated AONB is still classed as heath or common land. “People have common rights,” explains Mullard. “It’s all associated with landholdings, so depending how much land a farm owns, the tenant and the farmer combined, they will get so many stints on the common.” Each stint gives the farmer the right to graze a certain number of livestock on the land, and the grazing process has become an integral part of the ecosystem. If common land isn’t grazed, the area becomes covered with scrub, creating a monoculture that can have a negative impact upon the local wildlife. But one of the main things that makes Gower unusual is its proximity to the city of Swansea. Driving into the AONB, you’re immediately struck by the juxtaposition of urban Swansea and the rolling green space it borders. This closeness of city and country has both positive and negative impacts. While creeping urbanisation, such as the introduction of streetlights and road signs, has been detrimental, the proximity of the AONB has also encouraged a strong sense of ownership within the city’s residents (see A sense of preservation), and ultimately, as Mullard points out, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s vital that people come to behold it. “One of the main threats to any AONB is indifference,” he concludes. “Urbanisation may be a threat, but one of the main reasons I wrote my book was to help raise Gower’s profile and to make people realise just how special and important a place it is.”
Gower miscellanea
• Gower’s rarest plant is the yellow whitlowgrass, an alpine plant that survived the last ice age and is now endemic to the peninsula
• The Gower moneyspider, discovered in Whitford Burrows in 1964, may not be unique to the region, but it is the only species to bear its name
• Archaeological sites of interest in the region include Iron Age hill forts, Bronze Age burial cairns, Palaeolithic caves and a medieval stripfield system called the Viel, one of only two surviving examples of its kind remaining in the UK
• The region supports a huge migratory and native population of birds. Naturalist Robert Howell once recorded 13,000 dunlin, a small coastal wader common in the region, in a single day
A sense of preservation
Formed on 23 December 1947, the Gower Society has become a vital part of the region’s preservation. The brainchild of four locals, the society was formed to bring together “kindred spirits among the general public” with a passion for the region, their main aim being “to encourage research and appreciation of Gower”. The idea quickly took off, and 125 people attended the first public meeting in January 1948. Later that year, the group’s remit was altered to include protection of the peninsula, when permission was sought to build a holiday camp in Rhossili. The group swiftly set about mobilising support to stop the construction, which would have required a partial levelling of the Burrows, the UK’s largest calcareous dune system. The campaign was successful and also succeeded in raising the society’s public profile and swelling its membership. Today, with nearly 2,000 members, the society is one of Britain’s most active amenity societies.
Don’t miss… Jonathan Mullard reveals his favourite spots
Worm’s head “Worm’s Head, Rhossili Down and the walk to Middleton – I think it’s the classic Gower walk.” Known locally as the worm, from the Welsh wurm, meaning dragon, the island is accessible by a natural land-bridge for around two and a half hours a day, depending on the tide
Cefyn Bryn Common “From Arthurs Stone, the view over the Burry Estuary and the grazing ponies offer a good snapshot of inland Gower.” Arthurs Stone is a glacier-borne erratic – a large rock moved from its original position by a glacier – that was underpinned with smaller stones and used as a burial chamber. The area is also notable for having a view that takes in almost the entire north and south of the peninsula
Whiteford Dunes “At low tide you can get all the way out to the cast-iron lighthouse at the end. It’s right on the estuary and there’s a real sense of isolation.” The flat-bottomed dune slacks have created a distinct type of freshwater wetland, encouraging a large variety of rare plant species
Port-Eynon Bay “Walk along the cliffs, past Culver Hole and down to the 16th-century salt works.” In operation between 1550 and 1650, the salthouse is a very early example of industrial salt production. Culver Hole is a medieval pigeon house, built into the cliff in the hope it would encourage wild pigeons to take up roost and breed
Mumbles “My final choice is something quite different – head up to the edge of urban Swansea, near Mumbles Island and walk into Mumbles Hills. There’s a nature reserve there that shows how the AONB goes right into the city.” The nature reserve is a mixture of limestone grassland, heathland, limestone scrub and woodland, and is an excellent spot for birdwatching
December 2006
Gower miscellanea
• Gower’s rarest plant is the yellow whitlowgrass, an alpine plant that survived the last ice age and is now endemic to the peninsula
• The Gower moneyspider, discovered in Whitford Burrows in 1964, may not be unique to the region, but it is the only species to bear its name
• Archaeological sites of interest in the region include Iron Age hill forts, Bronze Age burial cairns, Palaeolithic caves and a medieval stripfield system called the Viel, one of only two surviving examples of its kind remaining in the UK
• The region supports a huge migratory and native population of birds. Naturalist Robert Howell once recorded 13,000 dunlin, a small coastal wader common in the region, in a single day
A sense of preservation
Formed on 23 December 1947, the Gower Society has become a vital part of the region’s preservation. The brainchild of four locals, the society was formed to bring together “kindred spirits among the general public” with a passion for the region, their main aim being “to encourage research and appreciation of Gower”. The idea quickly took off, and 125 people attended the first public meeting in January 1948. Later that year, the group’s remit was altered to include protection of the peninsula, when permission was sought to build a holiday camp in Rhossili. The group swiftly set about mobilising support to stop the construction, which would have required a partial levelling of the Burrows, the UK’s largest calcareous dune system. The campaign was successful and also succeeded in raising the society’s public profile and swelling its membership. Today, with nearly 2,000 members, the society is one of Britain’s most active amenity societies.
Don’t miss… Jonathan Mullard reveals his favourite spots
Worm’s head “Worm’s Head, Rhossili Down and the walk to Middleton – I think it’s the classic Gower walk.” Known locally as the worm, from the Welsh wurm, meaning dragon, the island is accessible by a natural land-bridge for around two and a half hours a day, depending on the tide
Cefyn Bryn Common “From Arthurs Stone, the view over the Burry Estuary and the grazing ponies offer a good snapshot of inland Gower.” Arthurs Stone is a glacier-borne erratic – a large rock moved from its original position by a glacier – that was underpinned with smaller stones and used as a burial chamber. The area is also notable for having a view that takes in almost the entire north and south of the peninsula
Whiteford Dunes “At low tide you can get all the way out to the cast-iron lighthouse at the end. It’s right on the estuary and there’s a real sense of isolation.” The flat-bottomed dune slacks have created a distinct type of freshwater wetland, encouraging a large variety of rare plant species
Port-Eynon Bay “Walk along the cliffs, past Culver Hole and down to the 16th-century salt works.” In operation between 1550 and 1650, the salthouse is a very early example of industrial salt production. Culver Hole is a medieval pigeon house, built into the cliff in the hope it would encourage wild pigeons to take up roost and breed
Mumbles “My final choice is something quite different – head up to the edge of urban Swansea, near Mumbles Island and walk into Mumbles Hills. There’s a nature reserve there that shows how the AONB goes right into the city.” The nature reserve is a mixture of limestone grassland, heathland, limestone scrub and woodland, and is an excellent spot for birdwatching
December 2006
