Welcome to Gower, one of the most remarkable corners of Wales.
In 1956, Gower became Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, recognised for its spectacular coastline, sweeping beaches, limestone cliffs and rich wildlife. Yet Gower is far more than a beautiful landscape. It is a place where thousands of years of Welsh history remain woven into everyday life.
Here you’ll find prehistoric monuments and Iron Age hillforts, Norman castles and ancient churches, medieval villages and historic pubs.
Its people have farmed the land, quarried limestone, mined coal, harvested shellfish, sailed the Bristol Channel and built communities that continue to shape the peninsula today.
Although Gower cannot represent every part of Wales, it offers a remarkable introduction to many of the themes that have shaped our nation.
Here you can discover dramatic coastlines, sandstone hills, tranquil salt marshes and estuaries, rolling commons and wooded valleys, thriving villages and traces of industry, alongside stories of faith, trade, migration and community that echo across Wales.
For that reason, we have chosen Gower as the first region to be explored in depth on Roots in Wales.
Our goal here is simple.
We want this to become the most comprehensive freely available online guide to Gower’s landscapes, communities and heritage.
Every village, every beach, every river, every church, every historic pub, every industry site, every walk and every story will help demonstrate the standard we hope to achieve as Roots in Wales gradually expands across the rest of the country.
This will be more than a visitor’s guide, and it is more than a snapshot of Gower in the early twenty-first century.
Roots in Wales is a living archive.
As we build relationships with the people of Gower, we hope this section will continue to grow through their knowledge, memories, photographs, films and family histories.
New discoveries will be added, overlooked stories brought to light and contemporary life recorded alongside the peninsula’s rich past.
Our aim is not simply to preserve the history of Gower, but to record its continuing story.
In doing so, we hope future generations will be able to understand not only what Gower looked like, but what it meant to the people who lived, worked and found their sense of belonging here.
Whether your connection to Gower is through family, friendship, holidays or simple curiosity, we hope this section encourages you to look a little more closely, to explore more deeply, and perhaps even to contribute your own story.
Croeso i Ŵyr.
Welcome to Gower.
