Gower Woodland Walks in Winter

Crisp, sunny days with low winter light make for great walking in the woods. There’s nothing like shafts of sunlight between tree trunks or the crunch of twigs underfoot. At Bayview, we love nothing more than to venture into the woods at this time of year.

And we don’t have to go far as acres of natural woodland form part of the grounds here at Bayview and they’re yours to explore. In fact, the woodlands here in Oxwich are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSS1) and form part of the larger National Nature Reserve (NNR) – a mixed landscape that includes beaches, sand dunes, and salt marshes. All this in such a compact space. We’re truly blessed.

So when you go into Oxwich Woods you can expect to see rare plant species such as rock whitebeam, stinking hellebore, dominated by oak, elm, ash and small-leaved lime – a great place for kids with spotters’ notebooks!

A favourite of ours in this just-before-Christmas run-up, is a short trip by car to the north side of the Gower peninsula, and the woods at Cwm Ivy. It’s here that I (Ellen) collected fir cones when I was a child in readiness for Christmas, as my three girls do now. The National Trust woods are accessible and have a flat, needled path. You can park in Cwm Ivy (put your money in the honesty box) and head down the hill, through the gate to your right and along the path that leads to the salt marshes and Whiteford Burrows.

This is a magical walk, the twisted and bent conifers (Monterey Pines) exuding that distinctive smell of Christmas. You can also stop off at two bird hides and see what you can spot or perhaps, stop off at The Britannia, a traditional village pub at Llanmadoc.

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visitingwoods/woods/oxwich

OS Explorer 164 Gower/Gŵyr