Exploring Cwm Ivy, Gower

Walking route

Explorer Tom

Exploring Cwm Ivy starts at the little car park beyond Llanmadoc on north Gower and enters a changing salt marsh. Bring binoculars, not a treasure map: the prizes here are birds, tidal pools and perhaps an otter with the good sense to stay ahead of you. The National Trust's 1.5-mile route goes through Cwm Ivy Wood and past the old sea wall, looking over the salt marsh towards Llanrhidian. It reaches the Monterey bird hide among wind-bent pines, then doubles back to a woodland path for Cheriton bird hide. The Trust explains that after the sea wall breached, former grazing fields became a growing mix of salt-marsh plants and pools that attract waders, kingfishers and other wildlife. Nature built it without filing plans. Allow about an hour and a half, even though much of the walk is fairly level: the narrow lanes, tracks and footpaths include short steep sections and can turn muddy after rain. The route returns to Cwm Ivy car park rather than continuing all the way to Whiteford Burrows. Livestock may be present, so dogs must stay on leads. Give the hides a quiet visit; noise will send the birds elsewhere. The start is the privately owned Cwm Ivy car park, grid reference SS441933, where charges apply. Follow the National Trust signs from the village and respect the marsh edge and any current local notices; tidal habitats are busy places even when they look still. You may come hoping for a kingfisher, but the unfolding change from farmland to salt marsh is a discovery worth the walk even without a bird in sight.

A mapped walking route does not guarantee present access or safe conditions. Check signs, closures and the weather before setting out.

Distance: 2.4

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What is recorded here

Trail takes you along a new wildlife-rich salt marsh, past two bird hides and plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting - kingfishers, otters and wading birds. Dogs on leads due to livestock on trail.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors)