There are glorious seashores (and smugglers’ caves) to be explored close to home, as Marcus Leach and family discover on a weekend in Wales

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A Wrap up warm for a winter walk! Marcus and family admire the view across Pennard Pill

AS WE STOOD on the long finger of sand extending out from the rocks, waves gently lapping at our feet and the early afternoon sun warming our faces, it was hard to believe we were in Wales at the end of November.

Then again, given the way of the world right now, it was hard to believe that we were anywhere other than at home.

At a time when travel is very much a luxury, we would have settled for simply being away – to be blessed with weather better suited to spring was a real bonus.

There had been a few options on where to go in the running, but the very mention of medieval castles, ancient shipwrecks and smugglers’ caves was enough to tip the scales in favour of a weekend in the Gower.

Needless to say, our son, Harrison, was even more excited than usual when we picked him up from the school gates on Friday afternoon, and soon we set off for the coast, with the promise of adventures in the footsteps of some folklore legends.

Travelling along the M4, it’s all too easy to keep going past Swansea, as we have done on countless occasions, but in doing so, you forget that some of the UK’s finest stretches of coast are contained within the small pocket of land that juts out into the water past Swansea Bay. While new to us, the Gower Peninsula’s beauty has long been known and widely recognised, having been designated the first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK back in 1956.