Port Eynon Bay

Taking its name from the Welsh prince Einon ap Owain Hywel Dda, who invaded Gower in 970 a.d., Port Eynon was a thriving and bustling village in the 19th Century, offering a good living to Oyster fishermen, mariners, and quarry men. Today, this achingly picturesque seaside village is far quieter, its population having plunged from around 240 in 1850 to its current level of around 140. Of course, the hundreds of campers who holiday here each summer disguise the usual calm that settles over the village for the majority of the year.

Port Eynon is currently the centre of a fierce controversy between the environmental activists and the sand dredging companies that lift thousands of tons of sand from the Bristol Channel each year. Suffering like no other beach on the peninsula, Port Eynon's once wide stretch of sandy bay has now receded drastically behind newly revealed rocky outcrops that had hitherto not been exposed here since prehistoric times.

One part of the bay that has always been rocky is Sedges Bank, located on the far right of the bay, past the ancient Salthouse ruins. Protected by the Glamorgan Wildlife Trust, all 86 acres of the site have been a nature reserve since 1966. An important habitat for all seashore life, Sedges Bank is the only remnant of the sand bar that once enclosed a now extinct salt marsh at Port Eynon.

An interesting sight from here are the two orange buoys that can be seen floating in the sea towards the centre of the bay. These mark the undersea remains of the pleasure cruiser "Prince Ivanhoe”, which was wrecked here in 1981. All of its passengers were brought safely to land during the incident.

Port Eynon is Gower's most tourist orientated beaches with the largest collection of seaside shops on the peninsula.

Port Eynon Church

A church has stood on the site of the present St. Cattwg Church since the 6th Century a.d. but the present building originated from the 12th Century. Dedicated to the Celtic Saint of Llancarfan, the most distinctive feature noticeed by present day visitors is perhaps not the church itself but the memorial statue of the lifeboatman sited in the most visible corner of the churchyard.

This large sculpture of a lifeboatman, dressed in typical early 20th Century garb, is made from the finest Italian marble and commemmorates members of the village lifeboat crew who lost theier lives to the sea during a particularly daring rescue attempt in the Bristol Channel in 1916. A further memorial to this disaster can be found within the church itself in the form of a commemmorative pulpit.

Several items of further interest within St. Cattwg's Church include its lack of an eastern window, a blocked up leper's window in the chancel's southern wall and the greenstone Norman font - believed to be over six hundred years old - a gift of the Abbot of Llantwit Major at the time.

Like most of Gower's churches, St. Cattwg has been renovated on several occassions, most notably in 1861 when the church's gallery was destroyed and the west end of the building was enlarged to cater for the growing congregation, in 1901 when the stone entrance to the building was replaced by a cement one and in the 1960's when the church was further enlarged.

A particular favourite of Port Eynon Church are its beautiful stained glass windows. Fortunately, these can be freely viewed during the summer months when the church is usually open to the public.

Just two of Port Eynon Church''s Magnificent
Stained Glass Windows