Worm's Head

Last updated

Worm's Head (5273).jpg
The Devil's Bridge Sitting on the Devil's Bridge.jpg
The Devil's Bridge
Looking back toward the tidal path between the mainland and Inner Head. Worm's Head 1.jpg
Looking back toward the tidal path between the mainland and Inner Head.
Looking back towards the mainland from the Outer Head Worms Head, Rhossili - panoramio - Ceri Roberts.jpg
Looking back towards the mainland from the Outer Head

Worm's Head (Welsh : Pen Pyrrod) is a headland, at Rhossili, part of the City and County of Swansea, Wales. It is the furthest westerly point of the Gower Peninsula. The name Worm's Head is derived from an Old English word 'wyrm' for 'sea serpent'. [1] The headland of carboniferous limestone comprises three islands: the Inner Head, the Middle Head which features a collapsed sea cave and is known as the Devil's Bridge, and the Outer Head. [2] In total, it is approximately one mile long. The Inner Head is up to 200 yards wide. [3] Worm's Head is only accessible on foot for 2+12 hours either side of low tide, fatal to attempt to wade or swim to when the causeway from the mainland is flooded. [4]

The poet Dylan Thomas initially described the Worm's Head as "the very promontory of depression" and was forced once to spend the night on the Head after being trapped by the tide. [5]

Visitors are still caught out by the incoming tide and, in September 2020, seven Swansea University students were rescued by the local RNLI lifeboat after getting stranded on Worm's Head by the incoming tide. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dylan Thomas</span> Welsh poet and writer (1914–1953)

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" Under Milk Wood. He also wrote stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became widely popular in his lifetime and remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swansea</span> City and county in Wales

Swansea is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gower Peninsula</span> Peninsula in Wales

Gower or the Gower Peninsula is in South West Wales and is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, Wales. It projects towards the Bristol Channel. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gower (electoral ward)</span> Human settlement in Wales

Gower electoral ward is an electoral ward in Britain. It is a ward of the City and County of Swansea, and comprises the western part of the Gower Peninsula. It lies within the UK Parliamentary constituency of Gower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mumbles</span> Headland on Swansea Bay in Wales

Mumbles is a headland sited on the western edge of Swansea Bay on the southern coast of Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bristol Channel</span> Large inlet to the river Severn in southwest Great Britain

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aberaeron</span> Town in Ceredigion, Wales

Aberaeron, previously anglicised as Aberayron, is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales. Located on the coast between Aberystwyth and Cardigan, its resident population was 1,274 in the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Quay</span> Seaside town in Ceredigion, Wales

New Quay is a seaside town and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales; it had a resident population of 1,045 at the 2021 census. Located 19 miles (31 km) south-west of Aberystwyth, on Cardigan Bay with a harbour and large sandy beaches, the town lies on the Ceredigion Coast Path. It remains a popular seaside resort and traditional fishing town, with strong family and literary associations with the poet Dylan Thomas and his play, Under Milk Wood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swansea Bay</span> Bay on the southern coast of Wales

Swansea Bay is a bay on the southern coast of Wales. The River Neath, River Tawe, River Afan, River Kenfig and Clyne River flow into the bay. Swansea Bay and the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel experience a large tidal range. The shipping ports in Swansea Bay are Swansea Docks, Port Talbot Docks and Briton Ferry wharfs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernon Watkins</span> Welsh poet

Vernon Phillips Watkins was a Welsh poet and translator. He was a close friend of fellow poet Dylan Thomas, who described him as "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhossili</span> Village in the county of Swansea, Wales

Rhossili is both a small village and a community on the southwestern tip of the Gower Peninsula in Wales. It is within the first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the United Kingdom. The village has a community council and is part of the Gower parliamentary constituency, and the Gower electoral ward. At the 2011 census, the population was 278. The community includes the hamlet of Middleton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishop Gore School</span> Secondary school in Swansea, Wales

The Bishop Gore School is a secondary school in Swansea in Wales, founded on 14 September 1682 by Hugh Gore (1613–1691), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. It is situated in Sketty, close to Singleton Park and Swansea University. In December 2013 the school was ranked in the second highest of five bands by the Welsh Government, based on performance in exams, value added performance, disadvantaged pupils' performance, and attendance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Eynon</span> Human settlement in Wales

Port Eynon is a village and community within the City and County of Swansea, Wales, on the far south tip of the Gower Peninsula within the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The A4118 from Swansea city centre terminates here.

Langland Bay is a popular coastal holiday resort in Gower, Swansea in south Wales. It is a popular surfing beach which regularly meets the European Blue Flag award for quality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Pool Bay</span>

Blue Pool Bay is a small cove near the village of Llangennith in Gower, Wales. The cove is bordered by cliffs, and is accessible via a clifftop path and a steep, unstable path down to the beach. The beach is covered fully at high tide and takes its name from a large, natural rockpool. Rhossili Bay is nearby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuisine of Gower</span> Welsh regional cuisine

The cuisine of Gower, a peninsula in south Wales, is based on ingredients grown, raised or collected on or around the peninsula. The cuisine is based on fresh ingredients with recipes based around a fish or meat dish. Until the twentieth century, the peninsula was virtually cut off from other markets due to poor roads, and no rail connection. The result was that Gower became self-sufficient in food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gower and Swansea Bay Coast Path</span> A section of the Wales Coast Path

The Gower and Swansea Bay Coast Path is part of the Wales Coast Path, an 1,400-kilometre (870 mi) long-distance walking route around the whole coast of Wales that opened in 2012. The Gower and Swansea Bay stretch is 156 kilometres (97 mi) 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coastline of Wales</span> Sea-bounded areas of Wales

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).

References

  1. "Wyrm". 5 January 2022.
  2. "Worms Head, Rhossili (412774)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  3. "Worm's Head". BBC Wales Nature&Outdoors. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  4. "Worms Head". National Coastwatch Institution. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  5. Kathryn Thomas (16 October 2015). "Welsh History Month: Dylan Thomas is truly a writer whose influence is felt well beyond his Welsh homeland". Wales Online . Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  6. Sian Burkitt (17 September 2020). "Seven people rescued from Worm's Head after being cut off by the tide". Wales Online. Retrieved 16 October 2020.

51°33′51″N4°19′11″W / 51.5641°N 4.3198°W / 51.5641; -4.3198