Llanmadoc Hill is a 186-metre-high
hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct Summit (topography), summit.
Terminology
The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally con ...
at the northwestern corner of the
Gower Peninsula west of
Swansea
Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe).
The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
in South
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. The summit at the western end of the east–west aligned ridge is crowned by a
trig point; at its eastern end are a series of complex
earthworks
Earthworks may refer to:
Construction
*Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour
* Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil
*Earthworks (military), m ...
known as The Bulwark. Numerous other prehistoric cairns adorn the hill's broad summit ridge.
The hill's position above the village of
Llanmadoc within 2 km of Gower's northwest coast enables wide panoramas to be enjoyed over the western end of the
peninsula
A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...
and the surrounding
Loughor estuary
The River Loughor () ( cy, Afon Llwchwr) is a river in Wales which marks the border between Carmarthenshire and Swansea. The river is sourced from an underground lake at the Black Mountain emerging at the surface from Llygad Llwchwr which trans ...
,
Rhossili Bay
Rhossili ( cy, Rhosili; ) is both a small village and a community on the southwestern tip of the Gower Peninsula in Wales. It is within the first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the United Kingdom. The village has a community council and i ...
and
Carmarthen Bay.
Geology
The hill is formed from an
anticlinal Anticlinal may refer to:
*Anticline, in structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core.
*Anticlinal, in stereochemistry, a torsion angle between 90° to 150°, and –90° to –150°; see Alkane_st ...
east–west ridge of
Old Red Sandstone, the core of which is the hard
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
of the Lower Old Red Sandstone Brownstones Formation and the northern and southern flanks of which are the overlying
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
conglomerates of the Upper Old Red Sandstone. The lower flanks of the hill are mantled by
glacial till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
.
Access
Almost the entire hill is mapped as
open country under the
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 thus providing relatively unfettered access on foot for members of the public. There is in addition a very dense network of
public footpaths and bridleways criss-crossing the hill and linking to the minor roads which surround the hill on all sides.
[Ordnance Survey Explorer map 164 Swansea & Gower] The
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
own and manage the eastern ridge above the village of
Cheriton up to The Bulwark.
References
{{reflist
External links
images of Llanmadoc Hill and area on Geograph website
Mountains and hills of Swansea