1
**This route has not yet been independently checked. If you come across a problem with this route, please get in touch and let us know.** Leave the car park at its entrance, turn right and just past the bus stop take the narrow lane on the left around the back of the church. Turn left along a track by Glebe farm to reach a gate; leave the Welsh Coast Path (WCP) and climb the well worn track to the right of a small building. Select one of the paths to reach the ridge and trig point on the first summit. Continue on either the paths between the summits or the wider signed bridleway to the east. After the last peak don’t continue down a steep slope but take the bridleway to the right at a small way post to pass to the left of a rocky spine. The village of Llangennith can be seen ahead. At a signed junction take the bridleway on the left; after a while this heads to a white house with gable windows. On approaching the house head to its right to a gate and stile; proceed downhill to the left of a fence. At the end of the fence bear right and pass two stiles before crossing a bridge in a wooded area. Turn left by the stream and at the nearby junction of paths continue straight on through three gates to reach a busy road.
The area around Rhossili Down is home to prehistoric stone circles, cairns and burial chambers. The concrete structures below the west side of the ridge are a war time radar post.There have been a number of recent changes to the bridleway network on Rhossili Hill that are not, at the time of writing, been reflected on the OS maps.
Take care at the end of this leg as there is no pavement on this busy road.
2
Turn right, along the road, for about 50 metres, before cutting back along a footpath on the left. Take the left path, behind the house, through five fields. When a concrete bridge is reached turn right on a path with a stream on the right, past a kissing gate to reach attractive reed beds. Soon after a bridge turn right onto a wide well used path. After a while a kissing gate is passed and the path curves to the left, uphill, for a short distance. When the path descends do not go through the gate but follow the path to the left that continues though open grassland to reach a kissing gate onto the access road to a farm and caravan park. Turn left along this road, past a visitors’ car park, and take the left fork, signed Blue Pool and Coastal Path, and the left fork by the Speed Ramps sign. At the next junction take the right fork, downhill, to reach a green area behind some bollards.
3
This leg of the walk follows the WCP. Continue onwards to reach a large barn on the right to follow a path that runs through the back of the dunes to reach a gate where a wide track leads to another caravan park. Take the path to the left and after a short distance go through a gate and climb up a sandy, twisty, path to reach a green plateau. (Ignore a kissing gate to the front half-way up.) Follow around the headland, with views of Broughton Bay behind, Burry Estuary, Burry Port and Whiteford point with its Iron lighthouse ahead. Leave the plateau by the left of two gates and descend rapidly along a sandy path to reach a rifle-range. After the next gate the WCP has alternative routes; take the short route to Cwm Ivy up a short incline before descending to an entrance to the woods to leave the WCP.
At the time of writing there is a diversion to the WCP due to a breach in Cwm Ivy wall
4
Continue in the same direction along the stony path, which soon becomes a road, through Cwm Ivy before arriving at St Madoc Church and the road through Llanmadoc. Turn left and immediately right by the Old Rectory to climb uphill along a track, signposted to Llangennith, between two walls. On reaching the open hillside climb the green path straight ahead to reach the ridge at the site of the Bulwark, an Iron Age hill fort. Turn right, along the ridge, passing a large stone cairn, before taking the left folk, in the direction of northern end of Rhossili hill, to leave the ridge on a long gradual descent. Take the left fork at a junction heading in the direction of Hardings Down with its distinctive hill forts. Pass electricity pylons and take a right fork though gorse bushes to reach the road to Llangennith at a point with a sign indicating no parking or camping.
Cwm Ivy boasts a small cafe and there is a community shop in Llanmadoc.The Bulwark probably dates to the Iron Age and was built over a number of periods and consists of a number of banks, ditches and ramparts
5
Turn right along the road for a short distance before turning left along a road, then track, to reach a house on the left. Take the green track ahead, to the left of the sign for Hillside, followed immediately by the right fork around the eastern end of Hardings Down. Turn right onto a stony track passing under electricity lines and then the left fork to descend to a house. Turn left with a hedge on the right to reach a stile in this hedge. After crossing this stile turn left, and keeping to the right of the fence, continue past a stile, kissing gate and stream. After the next stile keep to the left of the fence past five more stiles, the fourth in the corner of the field and the fifth the other side of a little wood where the path tends to get overgrown, to reach a track; turn right to reach the ruins of Old Henllys.
The manor house of Henllys, now called Old Henllys, was owned my Henry Mansell in the late fourteenth century. Later it and the surrounding land became part of the Margam and later the Penrice Estate.
6
Turn left, though a gap, just before the house (there is a faint yellow sign painted on right wall) and aim for a stile opposite about 50 metres from the right hand fence where the path enters a small wood. Continue though a gate/stile to reach a rutted field that is crossed to reach a stile in the opposite hedge. Cross this stile and following field to reach a stile in the left corner. Continue along the left hand edge of the next field to arrive at a stile on the left. Turn right on the track through the ruins of Newton. At the top of the field take the stile on the right and then head diagonally across a large field. There is a stile over an electric fence halfway across this field. Leave by a gate and cross the field aiming for a stile to the right of a barn. Exit the yard by the gate and walk to the road. Turn left, past Clifflands and take the path on the right, signposted to Foxhole Slade. Pass six kissing gates to reach Foxhole Slade and the WCP.
Foxhole Slade leads to Goat’s Hole, where the Red Lady of Paviland was excavated in 1823. The skeletal remains were believed to be a women as the bones had been coloured red by ochre. It is now known that the bones are male and these date back to 31000 BC.
7
Turn right, through a green kissing gate to follow the WCP on this leg. Follow to the right of a green area to reach a kissing gate and stone stile; shortly afterwards at a cross road of tracks turn left, soon with a wall/fence on the right to reach a kissing gate above Deborah’s Hole. Continue to another gate and descend into a deep gully leading to Ramsgrove beach. Exit the gully by the path opposite and continue to the left of a wall that disappears and is rejoined on a descent into another dip via a kissing gate; continue upwards to the left of a wall passing Alveley, the white house that has been visible ahead. When the wall turns to the right, with a sign to Pitton, continue downwards into the valley leading to Mewslade bay. Pass through a kissing gate to climb up the steep path opposite. At a T-junction turn left and again follow to the left of a wall until Fall Bay comes into view a second time and a path descend steeply. Leave the WCP by following a fence to the right and climbing some steps to reach a gate with a “Sheep in Park” notice.
There are a number of steep descents on this section of the WCP. Take special care if the grass/rocks are wet.
8
Take the permitted path diagonally across the field to a gate where the path ahead leads to another gate. Turn right a short distance though this field to pass two gates on the left either side of a footpath; take a grassy path to the left of the fence to reach a lane. Turn right and soon a left turn past Priest Hay to reach a “gate within a gate”. Another wooden gate returns to the NT car park.
This leg of the walk passes through the Vile, a rare survival of an open field system used in communal agriculture.
