Detour #294: Driving in the Glow of the Gower Peninsula, Wales
Ben Barry explores Wales’ Gower Peninsula – a sun- and shower-soaked National Landscape of coastal beauty
The plan? A four-day weekend escape with the family, throwing bags, beach gear and whatever else into an Audi Q7 before pointing it southwest, away from our East Midlands home and into the wilds of South Wales. Our destination: the Gower Peninsula, Britain’s first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – now a National Landscape – and, hopefully, a quieter alternative to the usual Devon and Cornwall haunts.
The Q7 settles into an easy rhythm on the motorway, gobbling miles at a steady 70mph as it cruises effortlessly down the M5, M40, and M4 before we spear off the main routes at Swansea. With the Audi’s long-striding suspension, cavernous interior, and V6 diesel hum keeping things relaxed, the kids are happy so long as their playlists keep streaming, even the two wedged into the rearmost pop-up seats, legs draped over bags.
Reynoldston, a sleepy village in South Gower, is our temporary base, our rented farmhouse stacked with puzzles and board games for the inevitable rainy days. And rain it does – two days of mist, drizzle, and the kind of damp cold that seeps into your bones, a surprise in August. Still, atmospheric in its own way, and at least the Q7’s heated seats make up for sodden hikes along cliff paths and detours to castles once fought over by Normans who never quite managed to subdue this land.
The Gower’s landscape is something else – rugged, raw, and completely timeless. As the salmon-pink evening sun sprawls over hills dotted with rock outcrops and grazing sheep, you feel like you've driven into an oil painting – particularly if you drive the open expanses of the B2471 at sunset. The Wales Coast Path threads its way around it all, offering stunning views and historical weight – after all, the oldest known human remains in Britain, the ‘Red Lady’ of Paviland, were discovered in a Gower cave. The entire place hums with history.
Driving here is its own adventure. The Gower’s roads are often narrow, coiling through thick hedgerows and squeezing between dry-stone walls, past isolated farmsteads and near windswept cliffs. A five-mile drive can take 30 minutes. The Q7 feels enormous on these roads, a battleship navigating streams – beware the sat-nav taking you down barely passable lanes.
Sunshine finally makes an appearance, and with it, the beaches. Oxwich is a standout: pull up, step out, and miles of picture-perfect sand stretches out before you. The sea is cold but exhilarating, the waves carrying us like driftwood. And the fish and chips from the beach shack are some of the best we’ve ever had.
Then there is Rhossili, another long strip of sand on Gower’s far west coast and one regularly listed as one of the world’s best beaches (at least according to Visit Wales). Lives up to the hype, though. You crest the final hill, park above the cliffs, and the view knocks the air from your lungs. A 10-minute descent filters out the less committed, leaving us with a vast sweep of blush-coloured sand, flanked by dramatic cliffs straight out of a Game of Thrones set. It feels like the edge of the world, Vikings and sea serpents just out of sight (though The Worm’s Head was in view – a tidal island just off the coast and accessible for about 2.5 hours either side of low tide if mostly submerged during our lengthy visit).
Evenings are for watching the sun melt into the horizon over Pobbles Beach, wood-fired pizza in hand. The Mumbles, on the other hand, underwhelm. Discovering these two rocky outcrops were named after the French for ‘breasts’ by visiting sailors proves momentarily amusing, but unless you’re after arcade jingles and Greggs pasties, it’s an easy skip.
Gower isn’t as well-known as Pembrokeshire, but that’s part of the appeal. Crumbling castles, windswept moors, and the constant interplay of sea and sky – it’s a place where time slows. Whether you come for the waves, the history or just to explore the local roads, the Gower delivers.
ROADBOOK
CLASS: Ocean Drive
NAME: GOWER PENINSULA
ROUTE: Swansea to Swansea
COUNTRY: WALES
Distance: 44 Miles
Ben Barry explores Wales’ Gower Peninsula – a sun- and shower-soaked National Landscape of coastal beauty