Originally this page had just a few interesting physical features as pictures and a video. Now, in January 2022, I have become increasingly interested in the evidences that huge amounts of sand are being permanently lost from south Gower beaches. In the book I explain that this has nothing to do with dredging activities and I interpret microrills as evidence of sand dunes that have been lost. I tentatively suggested that the sand loss is a natural recovery from the besanding that occurred during the Little Ice Age – an equilibrium being restored, or at least change back following those grim centuries of sand being driven up onto the coast, a phenomenon now much reduced.

I have recently been impressed by the increasing extent of exposure of features where once, in my youth, there was mainly continuous sand. Several other people have made similar observations. Below are a couple of recent pictures from Oxwich. (See also photographs of wreck piles of quarried limestone at Caswell in the excellent History of Mumbles: Limestone Quarrying in Oystermouth Parish by Carol Powell). I would greatly appreciate hearing from people who have old pictures that demonstrate the sand loss. I recently found additional microrills high on the isolated pinnacle in Rotherslade, indicating that dunes once existed there, rather as in Caswell (my book Section 6.4, Fig. 144). See the final image below concerning the original occurrence of dunes at Caswell. All of this needs further gathering of information. It is quite important for Gower.