Mochras | |
---|---|
Mochras above Llandanwg village | |
Location within Gwynedd | |
OS grid reference | SH552265 |
Principal area | |
Preserved county | |
Country | Wales |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | LLANBEDR |
Postcode district | LL45 |
Dialling code | 01341 |
Police | North Wales |
Fire | North Wales |
Ambulance | Welsh |
Mochras (also known in English as Shell Island) is a peninsula lying west of Llanbedr in Gwynedd, Wales. The peninsula was formed after the River Artro was diverted by the Earl of Winchilsea in 1819 from its previous course where it entered the sea to the south of Mochras. Prior to this, access to the ancient settlement on the 'island' would have been through the village of Llandanwg, which is now across the estuary.
Mochras is known for the wide variety of seashells that wash up on the beach, and for its wild flowers. It is said to have been connected to the mythical Cantre'r Gwaelod.
The peninsula lies within the Snowdonia National Park. From the end of October to the following March local farmers bring their sheep from the lowlands to graze on the 'island'.
Mochras is significant for the UK earth sciences. The area consists of a low lying raised beach (which encompasses the nearby Llanbedr Airport).
Between 1967 and 1969 the Institute of Geological Sciences (now known as the British Geological Survey) drilled a 1,938 m stratigraphic proving borehole at Mochras Farm. [1] This found relatively young Tertiary and Mesozoic rocks (including a well-developed Upper, Middle and Lower Lias section [2] towards the base of the Jurassic), faulted against the ancient Cambrian rocks of the Harlech dome. In 1971, the vertical throw of the fault was judged to be at least 4,500 metres (2.8 mi). [3]
Public vehicular access to the peninsula is only possible via a causeway across the estuary of the River Artro when the tide is out. Access on foot is always possible from the adjacent Morfa Dyffryn beach, which extends for several kilometres south of Mochras. Access to emergency vehicles is available at any time through the neighbouring airfield.
Mochras has a popular camp site [4] which offers the opportunity to practise "wild camping" in pitches which are far from the nearest neighbour (and from toilet and other facilities). Camp fires are allowed on the beach; with only raised, contained fires and barbecues allowed on the campsite.
Snowdonia, or Eryri, is a mountainous region and national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales over 3000 feet high, including the country's highest, Snowdon, which is 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) tall. These peaks are all part of the Snowdon, Glyderau, and Carneddau ranges in the north of the region. The shorter Moelwynion and Moel Hebog ranges lie immediately to the south.
Point Reyes National Seashore is a 71,028-acre (287.44 km2) park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as an important nature preserve. Some existing agricultural uses are allowed to continue within the park. Clem Miller, a US Congressman from Marin County, wrote and introduced the bill for the establishment of Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962 to protect the peninsula from development which was proposed at the time for the slopes above Drake's Bay.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is a national park along the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales.
Tremadog Bay, is a shallow inlet of Cardigan Bay in North Wales. It comprises the area between Mochras in the east and the Trwyn Cilan headland of the Llŷn Peninsula in the west. The Sarn Badrig reef extends south-west from Mochras and forms a natural barrier between Tremadog Bay and Cardigan Bay proper.
Llanbedr is a village and community 2.8 miles (4.5 km) south of Harlech. Administratively, it lies in the Ardudwy area, formerly Meirionnydd, of the county of Gwynedd, Wales.
Voyageurs National Park is an American national park in northern Minnesota near the city of International Falls established in 1975. The park's name commemorates the voyageurs—French-Canadian fur traders who were the first European settlers to frequently travel through the area. Notable for its outstanding water resources, the park is popular with canoeists, kayakers, other boaters, and fishermen. The Kabetogama Peninsula, which lies entirely within the park and makes up most of its land area, is accessible only by boat. To the east of the park lies the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Morfa Dyffryn beach is on the west coast of Wales, between Barmouth and Harlech in Gwynedd. This sandy beach is several miles long and is chiefly known for having an officially recognised naturist area, 1 kilometre (1,100 yd) in length. The beach is very clean and is also known for regular sightings of dolphins.
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. A fjord is an elongated bay formed by glacial action. The term embayment is also used for related features, such as extinct bays or freshwater environments.
Dyffryn Ardudwy railway station serves the villages of Dyffryn Ardudwy, Coed Ystumgwern and Llanenddwyn in Gwynedd, Wales.
The geography of Sydney is characterised by its coastal location on a basin bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the Woronora Plateau to the south. Sydney lies on a submergent coastline on the east coast of New South Wales, where the ocean level has risen to flood deep river valleys (rias) carved in the Sydney sandstone. Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbour, is one such ria.
The geology of Wales is complex and varied; its study has been of considerable historical significance in the development of geology as a science. All geological periods from the Cryogenian to the Jurassic are represented at outcrop, whilst younger sedimentary rocks occur beneath the seas immediately off the Welsh coast. The effects of two mountain-building episodes have left their mark in the faulting and folding of much of the Palaeozoic rock sequence. Superficial deposits and landforms created during the present Quaternary period by water and ice are also plentiful and contribute to a remarkably diverse landscape of mountains, hills and coastal plains.
Llandanwg is a village in the Llanfair community of the Ardudwy area of Gwynedd, Wales. Situated on the coast, it has a railway station and a Grade II listed medieval church.
The River Artro is a river in Gwynedd, Wales.
Hallett Cove Conservation Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the suburb of Hallett Cove on the coast of Gulf St Vincent about 22 kilometres south of the centre of the state capital of Adelaide.
Morfa Bychan is a village located in Gwynedd, North Wales, with a population of over 500, with an almost equal number of people born in England or Wales.
The Auckland Region of New Zealand is built on a basement of greywacke rocks that form many of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf, the Hunua Ranges, and land south of Port Waikato. The Waitākere Ranges in the west are the remains of a large andesitic volcano, and Great Barrier Island was formed by the northern end of the Coromandel Volcanic Zone. The Auckland isthmus and North Shore are composed of Waitemata sandstone and mudstone, and portions of the Northland Allochthon extend as far south as Albany. Little Barrier Island was formed by a relatively isolated andesitic volcano, active around 1 to 3 million years ago.
Cemaes Head is a headland and nature reserve in north Pembrokeshire. It lies in the community of St Dogmaels, within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. To the west and north it overlooks Cardigan Bay, and to the east Cardigan Island and the estuary of the River Teifi.
The geology of Snowdonia National Park in North Wales is dominated by sedimentary and volcanic rocks from the Cambrian and Ordovician periods with intrusions of Ordovician and Silurian age. There are Silurian and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks on the park's margins. The succession was intensely faulted and folded during the Caledonian Orogeny. The region was uplifted as the North Atlantic Ocean opened during the Cenozoic. The current mountainous landscape arises from repeated glaciations during the Quaternary period.
The Pancake Rocks and Blowholes are a coastal rock formation at Punakaiki on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. They are a popular visitor attraction.