Oxwich Bay, Gower, UK

Tourism Oxwich Bay, Gower, UK
Tourism Oxwich Bay, Gower, UK

The Gower Peninsula in Wales, which juts into the Bristol Channel, has a coastline pitted with secluded bays, rocky bluffs, and sweeps of golden sand.

Oxwich is a 2½-mile (4-km) sandy stretch, backed by dunes and a salt marsh, and is popular year-round for windsurfing, sailing, and water-skiing. The quietest part of the bay is on the eastern side, at Nicholaston Burrows.

If you have time, walk on the coast path to Oxwich Point, from which point there are great views back over the bay.

Oxwich Bay (Welsh: Bae Oxwich) is a bay on the south of the Gower Peninsula, Wales.

Its landscape features sand dunes, salt marshes and woodland. Oxwich Bay includes a 2+1⁄2-mile (4 km) long sandy beach, accessible from the village of Oxwich. It is a popular spot for swimming and watersports including diving, sailing, water skiing and windsurfing. There is a public footpath along the cliffs from Oxwich Bay, around Oxwich Point, and to Port Eynon Bay. Buses run every couple of hours between Oxwich and Port Eynon.

A wetland site at the rear of the dunes forms Oxwich Burrows National Nature Reserve. The dunes are crossed by a small stream called Nicholaston Pill. The bay ends at the eastern end with the cliffs of High Tor; but at low tide, a continuous sandy beach connects with Three Cliffs Bay beyond.

Within the nature reserve there are rare plants such as the dune gentian and the round-leafed wintergreen, insects such as the small blue, beachcomber beetle and the hairy dragonfly while the wetlands are important for birds, a bird hide is located at Whitestones which is accessed by a boardwalk through the wetlands. The birds present include water rail, little grebe and wildfowl, as well as the occasional wintering great bittern. Wikipedia

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