Location | St Donats Vale of Glamorgan Wales United Kingdom |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°24′03″N3°33′08″W / 51.400863°N 3.552259°W |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1832 |
Built by | James Walker |
Construction | stone tower |
Automated | 1998 |
Height | 37 metres (121 ft) |
Shape | tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern |
Markings | white tower and lantern |
Operator | Trinity House [1] [2] |
Heritage | Grade II listed building |
Light | |
Focal height | 56 metres (184 ft) |
Lens | 360mm catadioptric |
Intensity | 134,000 candela |
Range | 21 nautical miles (39 km; 24 mi) |
Characteristic | Fl (2) WR 15s. |
Nash Point (Welsh : Trwyn yr As) is a headland and beach in the Monknash Coast of the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales, about a mile from Marcross. [3] It is a popular location for ramblers and hiking along the cliffs to Llantwit Major beach. The lighthouse meadow is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, containing rare plants such as the tuberous thistle, and other wildlife such as choughs can be seen.
Parts of the section of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast where the lighthouse stands consists of "cliffs of Lias limestone interbedded with softer erodible material" and has been identified as potentially at risk from erosion and flooding. [4] Many fossils, including ammonites and gryphaea are to be found there. Marcross Brook passes through the cliffs and an Iron Age hillfort, usually called Nash Point Camp, stands on the north side of the brook, although its remains have been largely eroded by the sea. [5] Round barrows are also to be found nearby. [6] A study of the rocks shows that they exemplify "a 12,000 year old sequence of tufa, scree and slope deposits containing abundant fossil snails", while the Nash Bank offshore is formed by "Jurassic mudstones overlain by bands of sand and gravel". [7]
The Nash Point Lighthouse is a Grade II listed building, dating from 1831 to 1832. There are two lights, a high light and a low light, located at a distance of around 300 metres from one another. [5] The leading light was removed during the 1920s because of the shifting location of the Nash sandbank. [8] The lighthouse was designed by James Walker, the chief engineer for Trinity House. Its construction is said to have been spurred by the wreck of The Frolic on the Nash Sands in March 1831, [8] which resulted in over 50 deaths, including that of Lt-Col N McLeod. [9] The ship was on its way from Bristol to Haverfordwest. [10] First lit in 1832, the lighthouse was electrified in 1968. Nash Point Lighthouse became the last manned lighthouse in Wales, and was automated in 1998.
In 1962, the empty tanker BP Driver (formerly the BP Explorer, which had been rebuilt following a disaster in the River Severn) was pushed on the rocks and was abandoned by its crew of five, all of whom survived. Despite the assistance given by the lighthouse, the ship's captain was unable to bring her in safely to land. [11] At low tide, remains of the wreck can be found about 200m north of the beach access by the light house. [12]
Until 1974, Glamorgan, or sometimes Glamorganshire, was an administrative county in the south of Wales, and later classed as one of the thirteen historic counties of Wales. Originally an early medieval petty kingdom of varying boundaries known in Welsh as Morgannwg, which was then invaded and taken over by the Normans as the Lordship of Glamorgan. The area that became known as Glamorgan was both a rural, pastoral area, and a conflict point between the Norman lords and the Welsh princes. It was defined by a large concentration of castles.
Flamborough Head is a promontory, 8 miles (13 km) long on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, with sheer white cliffs. The cliff top has two standing lighthouse towers, the oldest dating from 1669 and Flamborough Head Lighthouse built in 1806. The older lighthouse was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1952 and is now recorded in the National Heritage List for England, maintained by Historic England. The cliffs provide nesting sites for many thousands of seabirds, and are of international significance for their geology.
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales and South West England. It extends from the smaller Severn Estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean. It takes its name from the English city and port of Bristol.
Wick is a small village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, situated approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the coast. The closest towns are Llantwit Major, Cowbridge and Bridgend. The community includes Broughton.
Palm Beach is a suburb in the Northern Beaches region of Greater Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Palm Beach is located 41 kilometres (25 mi) north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. Palm Beach sits on a peninsula at the end of Barrenjoey Road near Pittwater and is the northernmost beach in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan area. The population of Palm Beach was 1,593 as at the 2016 census.
Godrevy is an area on the eastern side of St Ives Bay, west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, which faces the Atlantic Ocean. It is popular with both the surfing community and walkers. It is part owned by the National Trust, and offshore on Godrevy Island is a lighthouse maintained by Trinity House which is said to be the inspiration for Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse. Godrevy lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the South West Coast Path runs around the whole promontory. There are several public car parks on the western side where the National Trust owns and operates a café.
Lavernock is a hamlet in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, lying on the coast 7 miles (11 km) south of Cardiff between Penarth and Sully, and overlooking the Bristol Channel.
Whiteford Point Lighthouse is located off the coast at Whiteford Point near Whiteford Sands, on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales.
Point Cabrillo Light is a lighthouse in northern California, United States, between Point Arena and Cape Mendocino, just south of the community of Caspar. It has been a federal aid to navigation since 1909. It is part of the California state park system as Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park.
Marcross is a small village in the rural community of St Donats in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. It consists of a public house and a few scattered houses, farms, and a small medieval church in the centre of the village.
Currarong is a small coastal fishing and tourist village of 556 houses in the Shoalhaven area of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2021 census, Currarong had a permanent population of 479. The village is a haven for fishermen, with several underwater rises where fish are abundant. As of 2024, there is take away cafe and restaurant called Beach Safari, a coffee shop which opens on weekends called Alma's Currarong Kombi Cafe, a licensed club, a caravan park, and many properties available for holiday rental.
The Mumbles is a district of Swansea, Wales, located on the south-east corner of the unitary authority area. It is also a local government community using the same name. At the 2001 census the population was 16,774, reduced slightly to 16,600 at the 2011 Census. The district is named after the headland of Mumbles, located on its south-east corner.
Tacking Point Lighthouse is Australia's thirteenth oldest lighthouse. It was built on a rocky headland about 8 kilometres south of Port Macquarie in 1879 by Shepherd and Joseph William Mortley, to a design by the New South Wales Colonial Architect, James Barnet. It is operated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and is classified by the National Trust of Australia (NSW).
Trevose Head is a headland on the Atlantic coast of north Cornwall, on the south-western coast of Great Britain. It is situated approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Padstow. The South West Coast Path runs around the whole promontory and is within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Trevose Head Heritage Coast. In clear weather, visitors to Trevose Head can see virtually the whole length of the north Cornwall coast; to the north, the view extends beyond the Cornwall county boundary to Hartland Point, Devon; to the south, it extends beyond St Ives to the headland at Pendeen Watch.
Smoky Cape Lighthouse is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Smoky Cape, a headland in Arakoon east of the town of South West Rocks, Kempsey Shire, New South Wales, Australia, and within the Hat Head National Park. It directs boats towards the entrance to the Macleay River, which is located just to the north of the lighthouse.
Southerndown Coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in St Brides Major community, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It forms part of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, bordered by the Monknash Coast to the southeast. The nearby villages are Southerndown and Ogmore-by-Sea. The SSSI extends over 5 kilometres of south-west facing coastline, with rocky limestone cliffs, broad beaches and deeply fissured wave-cut platforms.
The Gower and Swansea Bay Coast Path (Welsh: Llwybr arfordir Penrhyn Gŵyr a Bae Abertawe is part of the Wales Coast Path, an 1,400-kilometre long-distance walking route around the whole coast of Wales that opened in 2012. The Gower and Swansea Bay stretch is 156 kilometres in length, running along the coast of the Gower Peninsula from Loughor, Swansea to Kenfig Dunes near Port Talbot, South Wales. The number of people using the Wales Coast Path in the Swansea local authority area was 349,333.
The Glamorgan Heritage Coast is a 14-mile (23 km) stretch of coastline in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, UK.
The coastline of Wales extends from the English border at Chepstow westwards to Pembrokeshire then north to Anglesey and back eastwards to the English border once again near Flint. Its character is determined by multiple factors, including the local geology and geological processes active during and subsequent to the last ice age, its relative exposure to or shelter from waves, tidal variation and the history of human settlement and development which varies considerably from one place to another. The majority of the coast east of Cardiff in the south, and of Llandudno in the north, is flat whilst that to the west is more typically backed by cliffs. The cliffs are a mix of sandstones, shales and limestones, the erosion of which provides material for beach deposits. Of the twenty-two principal areas which deliver local government in Wales, sixteen have a coastline, though that of Powys consists only of a short section of tidal river some distance from the open sea. Its length has been estimated at 1,680 miles (2,700 km).