Full circle

If you like walking but don’t like to retrace your steps, a walk you might like to do from Bryn-y-môr Cottage is one we did ourselves again last weekend.

From the garden, walk up the gentle slope of Llanmadoc Hill – foxgloves out now and fern, hip-high and plenty of sheep to see! From the summit you get 360 degree views of the peninsula – west to Worm’s Head and the Atlantic, south to Oxwich and Port Eynon and the Devon cliffs in the distance, east to Swansea Bay and north, across the Lloughor Estuary to Carmarthenshire and the Black Mountains. Fantastic!

At the top you can sit on a bench in the old stone ruins of Llanmadoc School (1860-1935) get your breath back and take in the vistas. There’s a real sense of the past here. From here, walk along the road into the village of Llanmadoc where you can have a pint or lunch in the Britannia Inn or pop in to siop y bobl (the community shop – literally shop of the people ) and have a coffee and home-made cake. (We took this option and went for Welsh cakes and jam and cream scones).

Suitably refreshed, you can take a variety of routes back to Bryn-y-môr. We mooched around the 13th century church of St Madoc (the graveyard is fascinating and the church door is always open and there are some wonderful carvings inside). You can pick up a leaflet there too In the steps of the saints which tells you all about Gower’s churches and gives details of lovely walks. From here you can walk along the road (very quiet) and then walk through the bridle path and back along the beach at Broughton and then up the lane and back to Bryn-y-mor.

Then you can just sit in the garden or the sitting room and look back at how far you’ve come. Enjoy!