Port Eynon, Gower, South Wales, Autumn
Just outside of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, one can find other excellent stretches of South Wales coastline.
East of Pembrokeshire, Swansea is home to the Gower Peninsula and the Gower AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). We had already explored a small section of this area at the start of our holiday at Mumbles. But further along the coastline from Mumbles one can find a stretch of fantastical coastline between Port Eynon and Rhossili.
Whereas the cliffs at Lydstep Head were more vertiginous, at the Gower Peninsula the cliffs are formed from a faulted and folded sequence of Carboniferous rocks. More recent sculpting occurred in the last Ice Age as the Gower lay on the southern margin of the last ice sheet. As a result, the cliffs here feature fantastic shapes of curves and folds smashing into each other at peculiar angles.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my Vivitar “Series 1” 28–105mm f2.8–3.8 zoom and Laowa 9mm f2.8 prime lenses. RAWs converted in Capture One for iPad, developed and finalised in Affinity Photo for iPad.
Port Eynon, Gower, South Wales, Autumn by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Port Eynon Bay, with its long sandy beach and tall dunes. Port Eynon is thought to be named after Prince Einion of Deheubarth or an 11th-century Welsh Prince named Eynon. “Eynon” is apparently a fairly common surname in Wales.
West of the beach one can hike up the cliffs to summit Port Eynon Point. My lovely Lisabet pictured here heading straight for the knife-edge tip of Port Eynon Point.
Looking back along the limestone cliff edge from Port Eynon Point towards the summit trig point, the open Overton Mere, and the Gower cliffs beyond.
From Overton Mere, looking back at Port Eynon Point, it’s easier to see the folding of limestone that’s occurred around this stretch of the Gower Coast. Seemingly impossible shapes and lines that are entirely natural.
Below Overton cliff more fantastic shapes are revealed, millions of years of folding, faulting, erosion, and glacial scouring.
On top of Long Hole cliff we navigated a join in the folds of limestone to use as a leading line towards the Common Cliffs, as beautiful late afternoon light highlights their shapes.