Читать книгу Walking on the Gower. 30 walks exploring the AONB peninsula in South Wales онлайн

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This bay is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and is worth exploring. The rocky outcrops provide excellent exposures of geological structures formed during the Variscan mountain-building episode up to around 280 million years ago. The exposures provide a cross-section through the core of a major upward fold structure, the Langland Anticline, which extends across the whole Gower Peninsula, bringing the Carboniferous limestone to the surface. This fold, and its associated minor structures, have been studied in considerable detail, making a substantial contribution to the understanding of the geological structure of the Variscan Orogeny in South Wales.

Turn west to return to the start.

WALK 2

Caswell, Pwlldu and Bishopston Valley

Start/Finish Car park, Bishopston (SS 5791 8926) Distance 9km (5½ miles) Total ascent 255m Time 2½hrs Refreshments Joiners Arms and Valley Inns and Spar in Bishopston; The Plough and Harrow Inn and Village Stores in Murton; cafés in Caswell.

This route gains the coast via Bishop’s Wood Nature Reserve at Caswell Bay and then runs along the base of the cliffs to Brandy Cove and Pwlldu Bay. Tales of smuggling and ghosts abound here and one can just imagine the locals dodging the excise men by bringing their illicit booty ashore under the cover of darkness. Pwlldu Bay is also steeped in industrial history, as is Bishopston Valley which once had a working lead mine. The stream plays cat-and-mouse by disappearing and reappearing again a number of times.