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Route Penmaen - Oxwich Bay - Penrice County Swansea Difficulty Moderate Distance 14.4km (9 miles) Typical time Four hours OS grid reference: SS502864, Explorer 164 Starting point Penmaen Church: there is bus stop; north of the church is a parking space

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Blister rating: 3/5

View rating: 3/5

Why I love this walk

I moved to southeast Wales just over a year ago and about two months later we got a dog from the local rescue centre. My husband and I had always been big walkers but suddenly we had this small scruffy animal that needed walking all the time.

It was the perfect excuse to get out and explore our new countryside. I’d heard for years about the Gower Peninsula but never discovered it for myself. Last Easter we finally decided to go there. It’s a properly wild coastline with all these great little villages, and none of that seaside tat. It feels very wild and very unspoilt.

For me, Oxwich Bay is the most perfect walk. You start off scrambling up over the dunes, then walk down to the beach, where the dog always runs into the sea. The sand goes on for three miles and it feels like the Pacific coastline in California — great for blowing the cobwebs out of your head.

After the beach you cut inland and go through woodland. Along the way we’ve seen skylarks, and inland there are farmland birds. You also get chuffs on the Gower Peninsula, though really this walk is more about spectacular scenery than wildlife.

Springwatch returns to BBC Two in May

The route

1 From Penmaen Church, cross the road and along the lane opposite. After about 200m turn right. At the end of the lane, turn right, passing the gate and stile to the bottom.

2 At the bottom, bear right across a stream, then right up a path to the top of the Burrows. Turn right. Reach a gate and turn left. Follow the cliff path to a stile at the top of the high cliff and to a second stile on the right. Opposite, take a track to a path at the bottom.

3 Turn left for a short distance to the beach. Turn right and when you come to a stream, Nicholaston Pill, go inland to cross by a wooden bridge, then carry on along the sands of Oxwich Bay for 1.7km to Oxwich Bay Hotel.

4 Leave the beach and turn right into the road and ahead to a crossroads. Continue straight on passing several old cottages.

5 Just past “Driftwood” on the left, go right over a stile along a path to a stile to fields. Keeping to the right of the fields, go to a stile into woodland. Turn left on a path that keeps to the left of the wood, before bearing right to a stile.

6 Go half left across the field to the hedge and follow this over a stile and along a track to Penrice Church.

7 Cross Penrice village green and turn right along the road, going down for a short distance. At a sharp right bend go straight on a footpath through woodland. A few yards in from the road, the old Penrice well can be seen beside the path on the right. Soon the path descends to join a forestry road where, turning right, an old millpond is reached on the right.

8 Turn right here on another track and, at the end of the pond, take a footpath on the right which follows the course of a leat down to a ruined mill with, near by, curious quartered circular ponds — old fish or stew ponds.

10 Cross the road to the large ornamental gates into the Penrice Estate. To the right is a stone stile that is crossed to walk up the metalled drive through the estate and between the house and castle, following the yellow waymarks. At a junction, turn left past a red-brick stableblock, then right, off the drive, continuing to follow the waymarks to the main road. (The estate is private, and the castle is unsafe and cannot be visited).

11 Turn right for a short distance, and left up a narrow lane to Perriswood.

12 Go half right across the green along a short track and throught a gate on to the common of Cefn Bryn. Use the power line to guide you to the top of Cefn Bryn.

13 Turn right and walk past a trig. point and a rocky outcrop, turning right at Gower Way marker stone 12 to return to Penmaen.

Source: Walking Around Gower, West Glamorgan Ramblers Association

Things to see

Spectacular views of cliff and shore, along the coast and across the Bristol Channel. Wildlife includes birds of land and sea including chuff and skylark

Pub rating: 3/5

Pub: Oxwich Bay Hotel

Sweeping views of the “Britain’s best beach” that can be enjoyed while eating fine Welsh food. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a fan, apparently

Where to stay

Fairyhill Hotel
A charming 18th century house set in 24 acres of parkland in the heart of the Gower peninsula

King Arthur Hotel
A friendly old inn with 18 en-suite rooms serving traditional ales and home cooked food

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