Points of interest
A SMALL and quiet village, Llanmadoc once supported both a bustling weaving and farming community. A little of how the village once appeared can still be appreciated by visiting St Fagan’s Museum of Welsh Rural Life, near Cardiff, as they removed both a wool factory and a farmstead of the time from here to painstakingly reconstruct it brick by brick for posterity on their grounds.
The Britannia Inn boasts aweinspiring views over the Loughor Estuary and is situated in the picturesque village of Llanmadoc on the north coast of the famous Gower Peninsula (Britain’s first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). This beautiful 18th Century pub has its original fireplaces, bread oven and roof beams, some of which are reputed to have been taken from the ships that were ‘lanterned’ ashore in the nearby Estuary.
Situated close to Llanmadoc in north Gower, Cwm Ivy is an ancient broadleaved woodland and plantation. A small limestone quarry lies close to the marsh edge on the eastern side of the woodland. The western section of Cwm Ivy Woods was bequeathed by the wealthy Betty Church in 1983, where native deciduous trees such as ash, field maple and hazel were planted to extend Cwm Ivy Wood.
Whiteford National Nature Reserve is owned by the National Trust, and the NNR is managed jointly by the trust and Natural Resources Wales (NRW). It includes an expanse of sandy beach, Whiteford Sands, a wildlife rich sand dune system and forest.
The 3km stretch of sand that curves gently from the cliffs of Broughton Bay towards the isolated Whiteford Lighthouse is one of the quietest spots on the Gower Peninsula.
The reserve’s various mudflats, sands and salt marshes make it one of the most important wintering areas in Wales for wildfowl and wading birds.
Whiteford Lighthouse is an unusual cast-iron lighthouse built in 1865 to a design by John Bowen (1825–1873) of Llanelli, by the Llanelli Harbour and Burry Navigation Commissioners to mark the shoals of Whiteford Point, replacing an earlier piled structure of 1854, of which nothing remains. It is the only wave-swept cast-iron tower of this size in Britain.
The Bulwark is a strange earthwork construction that can be easily be identified on top of Llanmadoc Hill. This was an Iron Age hill fort with multiple defences occupying the east end of Llanmadoc Hill and is the second largest construction of its kind in the Gower Peninsula (the largest being that of Cilifor Top, in Llanrhidian). Originally designed to hold cattle and other livestock, the site was later adapted and fortified to protect the entire community at times of war.
Two further such earthwork constructions can be visited at the height of Harding’s Down, another of Llanmadoc’s numerous hills.
Llanmadoc Hill itself also holds at least 14 Bronze Age Cairns. Although many now lay broken and/or overgrown, the Great Cairn is still quite an impressive sight.