THE GORGEOUS GOWER

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Caswell Bay

Loads of highlights posts to come, enough to see us through ’till Christmas if necessary (sob).

Not many recent trips to the magical Gower, though last year I DID make some major inroads into West Wales, where the beer was better than expected.

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The beer has been a bit up and down in the vast GBG chapter (safe word) of Glamorgan of late, and you’ll struggle to see much cask pulled in the Gower.

The Dolphin, Llanrhidian

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“The Exmoor in a Carling glass was drinkable (NBSS 2), though giving the impression of a long and happy association with the pipes“.

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Pub 5, Beer 2

“Well worth the trip for the CAMROT-approved outside loos, complete with swing doors and a memory brought back of the Vetch c.1993.”

The Dolphin backs on to the marshes, where you can swap the pub dog for the marsh sheep and ponies.

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Attacked by ponies

Closer to Swansea you’ll find good beer, Rev James a 3.5, in the Valley.
The Valley, Bishopston

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Pub dog
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Bass tray

The sort of pub gentlefolk travel out to for their ham, new potatoes and leeks in parsley sauce for £6.50, without upsetting the locals with “Reserved for Simons” signs.

The real classic, the locals pub set in the wood near the disused railway line, is the place for your Deep Slade Dark.
Railway Inn, Upper Killay

“It’s not a pub you’d take your Mum to for Sunday lunch perhaps (unless you were Simon Everitt), but somehow all the more welcoming for that”.

Huge bell
Benches

Not a huge number of classic boozers round here (I’ll get to the Mumbles later), but the multitude of Spoons in small towns seem to have found their market.
Wetherspoons, Gorseinon

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But let’s be blunt, you don’t come to the Gower for beer, you come for this;

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

13 thoughts on “THE GORGEOUS GOWER”

  1. My sole experience of the Gower (and of Swansea) was of driving out to Port Eynon on the very misty morning of Tuesday 23 June 1998, and then going back along the north coast. A very “outdoorsy” area that lacks any kind of town as a focus, once you get beyond Mumbles.

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    1. Agree. It’s no Cornwall, no twee villages and I guess it’s the wide open spaces that are its appeal.

      Many folk in Swansea just head to Mumbles, which is a bit like going to Matlock Bath for your day in the Peaks.

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      2. We don’t visit the Gower that often, really – lovely as it can be.

        To be honest, getting past Swansea can be a bit of a palaver, it always seems.

        And there’s always the Pilot, and other attractions at the Mumbles to detain you.

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  2. In 2009 and 2010 we had holidays based at the then GBG listed Worms Head Hotel which is about as far from the Mumbles as it’s possible to get on the Gower.
    Not my “Mum to for Sunday lunch” but I took – except my wife was as always driving – my wife and daughter to the GBG listed Railway Inn at Upper Killay. They didn’t complain.
    We had some good lunches at the then GBG listed King Arthur Hotel in Reynoldston.
    We also went to Llanelli which wasn’t quite the highlight of the holiday.
    That’s when I bought and used the GBG.

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    1. “We also went to Llanelli which wasn’t quite the highlight of the holiday.”

      I would have mentioned the King Arthur, but it must be 20 years since I visited and they had excellent Bass on. One of the most affluent villages on the Gower, and a real gem.

      Hard to believe, Paul.

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    2. Stafford Paul, my wife and I called in at the Worms Head Hotel at the beginning of February. We were staying in Llanelli, and were down in that part of Wales for a family funeral.

      The Gower was a favorite holiday destination when I was a child, and that magnificent beach at Rhossili a great place to spend the day.

      Mrs PBT’s and I were quite taken with the Worms Head Hotel, and have earmarked it for a future stay, if we ever get out of this lock-down. Good beer, with the Gower Gold coming in at 3.5 NBSS. The Railway Inn at Upper Killay is another good pub, as you rightly point out.

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      1. T’other Paul,
        Yes and “that magnificent beach at Rhossili” is unusual in being installed below a steep stepped path to prevent it getting too crowded.

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