Passing West Cross it's worth noting that this part of the foreshore may have close connections with one of Britain's most celebrated seafarers, the legendary Sir Francis Drake. The ancient woodland in this area once extended as far as the coast, and rumour has it that many of the oaks were cut down in the 16th Century to help build Drake's fleet that inflicted such a massive defeat on the Spanish Armada. John Powell, chairman of the West Cross Park and Woodlands Protection Society, is convinced it is true, if only because the trees were of a particular type specially used for shipbuilding - and there weren't too many anywhere in Britain at that time.

Returning to Blackpill we can fully appreciate how impressive a bay Swansea really is. It is often compared to the bay of Naples in Southern Italy. This is how the 19th Century poet Walter Savage Landore put it, on returning to Wales from his travels abroad: "The bay of Naples is very fine but give me Mumbles for scenery every time."

He also referred to that "horrible black intrusion" on the dunes - a reference to the track for the Mumbles Railway.
On the subject of dunes, how often do we see them revived? The answer is not very often - yet Swansea Council's environmental policy for the beach has allowed a newly formed dune system to develop on the foreshore just in front of the skateboard ramp, near Blackpill. The growth was due to a change in the way the beach is cleaned; such progress does give hope for the future of the Swansea Bay coastline. Beaches have to be cleaned, of course - because of the action of the tides Pembrey near Llanelli once gained an unenviable reputation as the "dustbin of the Atlantic" but the "funnel effect" of the Bristol Channel does not, fortunately, work in the same way as far as Swansea is concerned.

Swansea Council is responsible for beach cleaning and a spokeswoman for the authority says, "Litter is hand picked - mechanically collected - to protect the strandline ecosystem, as Blackpill is a designated site of special scientific interest. During the summer months litter is picked on a daily basis. For the rest of the year the beach is checked daily and litter is picked when required."

The Crown Estate owns around 55% of the foreshore between mean high and mean low tide levels, and approximately half of the beds of estuarial areas and tidal rivers in the UK. It also owns the seabed out to the 12 mile territorial limit, including the rights to explore and exploit the natural resources of the UK continental shelf, excluding oil, gas and coal. Beaches generally are either owned privately or by local councils.

As you'll see if you cover the walk as the tide is either coming in or going out, the difference between high and low tide levels across the Bay is extremely large. In fact, the Bay running from Swansea down to the Mumbles has the second-highest 'tidal reach' (the difference between high and low tide) in the world, behind the Bay of Fundy in Canada.

The foreshore at Blackpill lies at the heart of the Swansea Bay SSSI and as it sits at the apex of the bay it's the last part of the shore to be flooded by the incoming tide. The marine invertebrate life in the mixture of sand and mud on the beach provides a rich source of food for birds such as the Mediterranean Gull, which has been recorded here since April 1970.

Written by Colin Hughes.

Special thanks to Swansea Tourism Development & Swansea City Council.

Lots more on the city and area in our dedicated Swansea section!