Gower Peninsula#Geography

{{main|Geology of the Gower Peninsula}}

Image:Worm's Head (Rhossili).jpg
causeway exposed at low tide]]

About {{convert|70|sqmi|km2}} in area, Gower is known for its coastline, popular with walkers and outdoor enthusiasts, especially surfers. Gower has many caves, including Paviland Cave and Minchin Hole Cave. The peninsula is bounded by the Loughor Estuary to the north and Swansea Bay to the east. Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers 188 km², including most of the peninsula west of Crofty, Three Crosses, Upper Killay, Blackpill and Bishopston.{{Cite web|url=http://www.swansea.gov.uk/media/pdf/0/8/AONB%20Leaflet.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326015927/http://www.swansea.gov.uk/media/pdf/0/8/AONB%20Leaflet.pdf|url-status=dead|title=The City and County of Swansea|archive-date=26 March 2009}} The highest point of Gower is The Beacon at Rhossili Down at {{convert|193|m|ft|abbr=off}} overlooking Rhossili Bay.{{Cite web |url=https://enjoygower.com/rhosilli-bay/ |title=Rhossili Bay |website=Enjoy Gower |access-date=25 January 2019}} Pwll Du and the Bishopton Valley form a statutory Local Nature Reserve.{{cite web | url= http://www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/swansea-green-map/pwll-du-bishopston-valley-local-nature-reserve-1449|title= Pwll Du and Bishopton Local Nature Reserve|publisher=Green Map|access-date= 8 December 2010}}

The southern coast consists of a series of small, rocky or sandy bays, such as Langland and Three Cliffs, and larger beaches such as Port Eynon, Rhossili and Oxwich Bay. The north of the peninsula has fewer beaches, and is home to the cockle-beds of Penclawdd.

The northern coast is mainly salt marsh, and is used for raising Gower salt marsh lamb which was registered as a Protected Designation of Origin in 2021 under UK law{{cite news|publisher=BBC News|title=Gower salt marsh lamb receives protected status|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58164754|date=11 August 2021|access-date=11 August 2021}}{{cite web |title=Welsh Gower Salt Marsh Lamb first new registration under new UK Geographical Indication schemes |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/welsh-gower-salt-marsh-lamb-first-new-registration-under-new-uk-geographical-indication-schemes |publisher=Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs |date=11 August 2021 |quote=The meat gains its unique characteristics from specific vegetation and environment of the salt marshes on the north Gower coastline, where the lambs graze over long distances for more than half of their lifetime.}} and in 2023 under EU law.{{cite web|url=http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/1547/oj|work=European Commission|title=Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1547 of 26 July 2023 entering a name in the register of protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications ('Gower Salt Marsh Lamb' (PDO))|access-date=29 July 2023|date=27 July 2023}}

The interior is mainly farmland and common land. The population mainly resides in small villages and communities with some suburban development in eastern Gower; part of the Swansea Urban Area.[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/240287/Gower Gower (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 22, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online]

In the caves of Bacon Hole and Minchin Hole on the southern coast of the Gower, remains of Pleistocene aged animals have been found, primarily animals present in the area during the Last Interglacial and the beginning of the Last Glacial Period (around 130-87,000 years ago) when the area had a similar climate to today, including animals such as straight-tusked elephants, the narrow-nosed rhinoceros, bison, cave lions, wolves, cave hyenas (who at times used the caves as dens), red foxes, red deer, roe deer, and fallow deer, as well as woolly mammoths in younger layers, with later layers in the caves dating to cooler phases of the Last Glacial having cold adapted species like reindeer and wolverines.{{Cite journal |last1=Currant |first1=Andrew |last2=Jacobi |first2=Roger |date=October 2001 |title=A formal mammalian biostratigraphy for the Late Pleistocene of Britain |url=https://doc.rero.ch/record/209912/files/PAL_E4236.pdf |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=20 |issue=16–17 |pages=1707–1716 |doi=10.1016/S0277-3791(01)00035-X|bibcode=2001QSRv...20.1707C }}{{Cite journal |last1=Gilmour |first1=Mabs |last2=Currant |first2=Andy |last3=Jacobi |first3=Roger |last4=Stringer |first4=Chris |date=December 2007 |title=Recent TIMS dating results from British Late Pleistocene vertebrate faunal localities: context and interpretation |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jqs.1112 |journal=Journal of Quaternary Science |language=en |volume=22 |issue=8 |pages=793–800 |doi=10.1002/jqs.1112 |bibcode=2007JQS....22..793G |issn=0267-8179|url-access=subscription }}{{Citation |last1=Currant |first1=Andrew P. |title=The Mammal Faunas of the British Late Pleistocene |date=2011 |work=Developments in Quaternary Sciences |volume=14 |pages=165–180 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9780444535979000108 |access-date=2025-04-21 |publisher=Elsevier |language=en |doi=10.1016/b978-0-444-53597-9.00010-8 |isbn=978-0-444-53597-9 |last2=Jacobi |first2=Roger|bibcode=2011DevQS..14..165C |url-access=subscription }}

Wales is known to have been inhabited since at least the Upper Paleolithic period, and the Gower Peninsula has been the scene of several important archaeological discoveries. In 1823, archaeologists discovered a fairly complete Upper Paleolithic human male skeleton in Paviland Cave. They named their find the Red Lady of Paviland because the skeleton is dyed in red ochre, though later investigators determined it was actually a male. This was the first human fossil to have been found anywhere in the world, and is still the oldest ceremonial burial anywhere in Western Europe. The most recent re-calibrated radiocarbon dating in 2009 indicates that the skeleton can be dated to around 33,000 Before Present (BP). In 1937 the Parc Cwm long cairn was identified as a Severn-Cotswold type of chambered long barrow. Also known as Parc le Breos burial chamber, it is a partly restored Neolithic chambered tomb. The megalithic burial chamber, or "cromlech", was built around 6,000 BP. In the 1950s, members of Cambridge University excavating in a cave on the peninsula found 300–400 pieces of flint related to toolmaking, and dated it to between 14,000 and 12,000 BC. In 2010, an instructor from Bristol University exploring Cathole Cave discovered a rock drawing of a red deer from the same period. This may be the oldest cave art found in Great Britain.{{cite news | url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-14272126|title=Carving found in Gower cave could be oldest rock art |work=BBC News|date=25 July 2011 |access-date= 28 July 2011}}

File:Crawley Rocks, Gower (4011829486).jpg

Gower is also home to menhirs or standing stones from the Bronze Age. Of the nine stones{{When|date=October 2015}}, eight remain today. One of the most notable of the stones is Arthur's stone near Cefn Bryn. Its 25-ton capstone was most likely a glacial erratic (a piece of rock/conglomerate carried by glacial ice some distance from the rock outcrop from which it came): the builders dug under it and supported it with upright stones to create a burial chamber. The remains of Sweyne Howes on Rhossili Down, Penmaen Burrows Tomb (Pen-y-Crug) and Nicholaston Long Cairn are three other well-known Neolithic chambered tombs. During the Bronze Age, people continued to use local caves for shelter and for burying their dead. Bronze Age evidence, such as funeral urns, pottery and human remains, has been found in Tooth Cave at Llethryd, Culver Hole (Port Eynon) and Cathole Cave. With the transition into the Iron Age, hill forts (timber fortifications on hill tops and coastal promontories) and earthworks began to appear. The largest example of this type of Iron Age settlement in the Gower Peninsula is Cilifor Top near Llanrhidian.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

File:ThreeCliffsBay.jos.500pix.jpg]]

Roman occupation brought new settlement. The Romans built Leucarum, a rectangular or trapezoidal fort at the mouth of the River Loughor, in the late 1st century AD to house a regiment of Roman auxiliary troops. Its remains are located beneath the town of Loughor. Stone defences were added to the earthen ditch and rampart by AD 110 and the fort was occupied until the middle or end of that century. However, it was later abandoned for a time and in the early 3rd century the ditch naturally silted up. It appears to have been brought back into use during the reign of Carausius who was worried about Irish raids, but was abandoned again before the 4th century. A Norman castle was later built on the site.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Following the Norman invasion of Wales the commote of Gŵyr passed into the hands of English-speaking barons, and its southern part soon became Anglicised.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} In 1203 King John (1199–1216) granted the Lordship of Gower to William III de Braose (died 1211) for the service of one knight's fee.Sanders, I.J., Feudal Military Service in England, Oxford, 1956, p.12, note 1; Charter transcribed in Clarke, G.T., Cartae, vol.3, pp.234–5 It remained with the Braose family until the death of William de Braose, 2nd Baron Braose in 1326, when it passed from the family to the husband of one of his two daughters and co-heiresses, Aline and Joan.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} In 1215 a local lord, Rhys Gryg of Deheubarth, claimed control of the peninsula, but in 1220 he ceded control to the Anglo-Norman lords, perhaps on the orders of his overlord, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

As an Anglo-Norman peninsula isolated from its Welsh hinterland but with coastal links to other parts of south Wales and southwest England, it developed its own Gower dialect of English.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

File:Gower Peninsula 1850 map.jpg

In 1535, the Act of Union resulted in the Lordship of Gower becoming part of the historic county of Glamorgan with the southwest part becoming the hundred of Swansea.

Agriculture remains important to the area with tourism playing an ever-increasing role in the local economy. The peninsula has a Championship status golf course at Fairwood Park just off Fairwood Common, which twice hosted the Welsh PGA Championships in the 1990s. Meanwhile, the Gower Golf Club at Three Crosses hosts the West Wales Open, a two-day tournament on Wales' professional golf tour, the Dragon Tour. Gower is part of the Swansea travel to work area.{{Cite web|url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/downloads/gbttwa.pdf|title=National Statistics Online|access-date=11 February 2008|archive-date=10 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010152154/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/downloads/gbttwa.pdf|url-status=dead}}

There are six castles on the Gower Peninsula: Landimore Castle{{mdash}}also known as Bovehill Castle{{mdash}}Oystermouth Castle, Oxwich Castle, Pennard Castle, Penrice Castle, Weobley Castle and numerous cairns and standing stones.

Four beaches have Blue Flag beach and Seaside (2006) awards for their high standards: Bracelet Bay, Caswell Bay, Langland Bay and Port Eynon Bay.{{Cite web|url=http://www.keepwalestidy.org/english/default.asp?Category=Tourism&NewsID=10&Menu=0.26.12.60|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102105409/http://www.keepwalestidy.org/english/default.asp?Category=Tourism&NewsID=10&Menu=0.26.12.60|url-status=dead|title=Keep Wales Tidy – Tourism – Blue Flags|archive-date=2 November 2006}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.keepwalestidy.org/english/default.asp?Category=Tourism&NewsID=199&Menu=0.26.12.64.74|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914030409/http://www.keepwalestidy.org/english/default.asp?Category=Tourism&NewsID=199&Menu=0.26.12.64.74|url-status=dead|title=Keep Wales Tidy – Tourism – Seaside Award Beaches 2006|archive-date=14 September 2007}} Five other beaches have been given the Green Coast Award 2005 for "natural, unspoiled environment": Rhossili Bay, Mewslade Bay, Tor Bay, Pwll Du Bay, and Limeslade Bay.{{Cite web|url=http://www.keepwalestidy.org/english/default.asp?Category=Tourism&NewsID=177&Menu=0.26.12.61.70|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006104911/http://www.keepwalestidy.org/english/default.asp?Category=Tourism&NewsID=177&Menu=0.26.12.61.70|url-status=dead|title=Keep Wales Tidy – Tourism – Green Coast Award Beaches 2005|archive-date=6 October 2007}}

Other beaches:

{{div col|colwidth=20em|content=

• Swansea Bay
• Mumbles Beach
• Rotherslade
• Brandy Cove
• Three Cliffs Bay
• Oxwich Bay
• Slade Bay
• Horton Bay
• Burry Holms
• Blue Pool Bay
• Broughton Bay
• Whiteford Sands

}}

{{main|Llethryd Tooth Cave}}

The Llethryd Tooth Cave, or Tooth Hole cave, is a Bronze Age ossuary site in a limestone cave, about {{convert|1,500|yd|km}} north north west of the Parc Cwm long cairn cromlech, on private land along the Parc Cwm valley, near the village of Llethryd. In 1961 the cave was rediscovered by cavers, who found human bones. An excavation was carried out by D.P. Webley & J. Harvey in 1962 revealing the disarticulated remains (i.e. not complete skeletons) of six adults and two children, dated to the Early Bronze Age or Beaker culture. Other finds are now held at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff: Early Bronze Age, or Beaker, collared urn pottery; flaked knives; a scraper; flint flakes; a bone spatula; a needle & bead; and animal bones – the remains of domesticated animals, cat and dog. Archaeologists Alasdair Whittle and Michael Wysocki note that this period of occupation may be "significant", with respect to Parc Cwm long cairn, as it is "broadly contemporary with the secondary use of the tomb". In their article published in The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (vol.64 (1998), pp. 139–82) Whittle and Wysocki suggest corpses may have been placed in caves near the cromlech until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb – a process known as excarnation.{{cite web|title=Key Sites Southeast Wales – Neolithic and earlier Bronze Age|url=http://www.archaeoleg.org.uk/pdf/neolithic/KEY%20SITES%20SE%20WALES%20NEOLITHIC%20AND%20EARLIER%20BRONZE%20AGE.pdf|access-date=2008-11-04|publisher=Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales|date=2003-12-22|work=Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales website}}{{Coflein|desc=Tooth Cave|num=305613 |access-date=4 November 2008 |date=11 July 2002}}{{cite web|title=Bibliography of Cave Sites Literature |url=http://www.capra.group.shef.ac.uk/2/walesbib.html |access-date=4 November 2008 |publisher=Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield |date=5 December 2000 |work=Chamberlain, A.T. & Williams, J.P. 2000 A Gazetteer of Welsh Caves, Fissures and Rock Shelters Containing Human Remains |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609105234/http://www.capra.group.shef.ac.uk/2/walesbib.html |archive-date=9 June 2010 }}{{cite web|title=Bibliography of Cave Sites Literature|url=http://capra.group.shef.ac.uk/2/wales.html#AY|access-date=4 November 2008|publisher=Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield|date=5 December 2000|work=Chamberlain, A.T. & Williams, J.P. 2000 A Gazetteer of Welsh Caves, Fissures and Rock Shelters Containing Human Remains|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060504182555/http://capra.group.shef.ac.uk/2/wales.html#AY|archive-date=4 May 2006|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}{{Cite journal

| last1 = Whittle | first1 = Alasdair

| author1-link = Alasdair Whittle

| last2 = Wysocki | first2 = Michael

| title = Parc le Breos Cwm Transepted Long Cairn, Gower, West Glamorgan: Date, Contents, and Context

| journal = Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society

| volume = 64

| page = 177

| publisher = The Prehistoric Society

| location = London

| year = 1998

| url = http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/pps/abstracts/abs64.html#Parc

| issn = 0079-497X

| doi=10.1017/s0079497x00002206

| url-access = subscription

}}

At 1,525 m long (nearly 1 mile), the Tooth Cave is the longest cave in Gower. It has tight and flooded sections, and so is kept locked for safety.{{cite web|title=Tooth Cave|url=http://www.ukcaves.co.uk/onecave-tooth|access-date=4 November 2008|publisher=UK Caves database|year=2008|work=UK Caves database website}}{{cite web|title=Gower Caves|url=http://www.explore-gower.co.uk/gower-caves|access-date=25 January 2019|publisher=Stella Elphick|year=2008|work=Explore Gower|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126063929/http://www.explore-gower.co.uk/gower-caves|archive-date=26 January 2019|url-status=dead}}

• Mumbles set the scene for a six-part drama Ennals Point featuring Welsh actor Philip Madoc. The series focused on the local lifeboat crew (1982)
• The Susan Howatch novel The Wheel of Fortune is primarily set in and near the Gower Peninsula, which plays an important part in the plot of the novel (1984)
• The film, Gower Boy, by artist Gee Vaucher and musician Huw Warren{{mdash}}a gentle, contemplative exploration of the Gower Peninsula in Wales{{mdash}}debuted at the 14th Raindance Film Festival (2006){{Cite web|url=http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org/festival/programme/features/gowerboy.htm|title=Fourteenth Raindance Film Festival | 27.09.06 – 08.10.06|date=14 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061114225430/http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org/festival/programme/features/gowerboy.htm|archive-date=14 November 2006}}
• Rhossili and Worm's Head feature in the Doctor Who episode New Earth (2006){{Cite news|url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/entries/0acc1d3e-74c2-4a66-8a3a-20001cf377ca|title = The Welsh Connection: 5 Factoids about the Doctor and Wales|date = March 1, 2015|work = BBC|access-date = March 1, 2015}}
• Rhossili Bay beach has been a location for the Lloyds Banking Group adverts featuring the iconic black horse galloping along the miles of sandy beach.{{cite web|title=Twitter: Lloyds Bank|url=https://twitter.com/asklloydsbank/status/855457005531693056?lang=en-gb|access-date=13 August 2021|date=May 2021}}{{cite web|title=Lloyds Bank Press Release |date=8 April 2017|url=https://www.lloydsbank.com/assets/media/pdfs/press-releases/2017/170408-new-lloyds-bank-advert-is-launched-press-release.pdf|access-date=13 August 2021}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/famous-black-horse-stunning-welsh-12862885|title=Rhossili Bay hits the small screen in new campaign|first=Paul|last=Turner|date=7 April 2017|website=WalesOnline}}
• A fictional village in 1918, near The Worm's Head, is the location of a Charles Todd atmospheric mystery novel A Forgotten Place (2018)

• Gower (electoral ward)
• Gower (UK Parliament constituency)
• Gower dialect
• List of villages in Gower
• Cuisine of Gower

{{reflist}}

• Prehistoric Gower, The Early Archaeology of West Glamorgan, by J. G. Rutter, 1949 (published by Welsh Guides, York Street, Swansea)
• Gower, by Olive Phillips, 1956 (published by Robert Hale Limited, London)
• Gower Journey, by A. G. Thompson, c1960 (self published by the author, Principality Chambers, Swansea)
• Portrait of Gower, by Wynford Vaughan Thomas, 1976 (published by Robert Hale Limited, London) ({{ISBN|0709155778}})
• The Gower Coast: A Coastline Walk And Guide To The History, Legends, Shipwrecks & Rescues, Smuggling, Castles & Caves, Including The Story Of The Dollar Ship, by George Edmunds, 1979 ({{ISBN|0906570018}})
• The Gower Peninsula, by Lawrence Rich (for The National Trust) ({{ISBN|9781843592754}})
• The Story of Gower, by Wendy Hughes, 1996 ({{ISBN|0863812171}})
• Historic Gower, by Paul Davies, 1997 ({{ISBN|0715407325}})
• Gower: A Guide to Ancient and Historical Monuments on the Gower Peninsula, by Diane M. Williams for Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments, 1998 ({{ISBN|1 85760 073 8}})
• Images of Wales: Gower Peninsula, by David Gwynn, 2002 ({{ISBN|075242615X}})
• The People of Gower, by Derek Draisey, 2003 ({{ISBN|0954654404}})
• Gower Rogues, by Derek Draisey, 2006 ({{ISBN|0954654439}})
• Gower, by Jonathan Mullard (in The New Naturalist Library, HarperCollins) ({{ISBN|0007160666}})
• Gower in History: Myth, People, Landscape, by Paul Ferris, 2009 ({{ISBN|9780956233202}})
• Gower, by Nigel Jenkins & David Pearl, 2009 ({{ISBN|9781848510524}})
• Real Gower, by Nigel Jenkins, 2014 ({{ISBN|9781781722190}})
• Black Apples of Gower, by Iain Sinclair, 2015 ({{ISBN|978-1-908213-45-7}})

{{Commons category|Gower Peninsula}}

{{Wikivoyage|Gower Peninsula}}

• [http://gowerhiddenhistory.blogspot.gr/?m=0 Gower Hidden History blog]
• [http://goweros.blogspot.com/ Gower Wildlife blog]
• [http://enjoygower.com/ Visual Guide to Gower]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/gower BBC Gower website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120903091520/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/gower/ |date=3 September 2012 }}
• [http://www.thegowersociety.org.uk The official website of The Gower Society]

{{Gower Peninsula}}

{{Conservation_designations_in_Wales}}

{{Protected areas of Wales}}

Category:Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wales