Gower (UK Parliament constituency)

Gower was an ancient marcher lordship of Deheubarth in South Wales.

Gower (Welsh: Gŵyr) is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of seven constituencies in the South Wales West electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to seven constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Wernffrwd (Gwernffrwd) is a village in the south of Wales. It is located approximately 8.5 miles (13.7 km) from Swansea, and is within the Community of Llanrhidian Higher. The village is situated in the north of the Gower Peninsula, overlooking the Loughor Estuary and consists of lower and upper Wernffrwd. The majority of the houses can be found in the lower part of the village, as does the church of Saint David's which can be found on the marsh road which skirts the village.

Llanmorlais railway station served the village of Llanmorlais, in the historical county of West Glamorgan, Wales, from 1884 to 1957 on the Llanmorlais Branch.

Llanrhidian Higher is a local government community in Swansea, south Wales. The community has its own elected community council. The area covered by the community council includes the villages of Penclawdd, Crofty, Llanmorlais, Blue Anchor and Wernffrwd. The population of the community taken at the 2011 census was 5218.Following The Swansea (Communities) Order 2011, the southeast third of Llanrhidian Higher became a separate community of Three Crosses.

Pen-clawdd (formerly Penclawdd) is an electoral ward in the City and County of Swansea, Wales, UK. It is named after the village of Penclawdd, which falls within the ward. The electoral ward consists of some or all of the following areas: Blue Anchor, Penclawdd, Llanmorlais, Crofty and Wernffrwd in the parliamentary constituency of Gower. The ward is mainly rural and is fairly sparsely populated. It is bounded by Gower to the south west, and Fairwood; Gowerton to the east and the Loughor estuary to the north. In 2022 the ward was officially renamed Pen-clawdd on the recommendation of the Welsh Language Commissioner.

Llanrhidian Lower is a community in the Gower peninsula forming the west of Swansea, south Wales. The community has its own elected community council. The population was 512 as of the 2011 UK census. The area covered by the community council includes Llanrhidian village and less populous Cilibion to the east, Oldwalls, Leason, Llethryd and The Common. The main village sits well above steep coastal banks on a rolling plain below two promontories, Arthur's Stone, Gower on the peninsula's main escarpment Cefn Bryn, specifically being its western burial mound sometimes called Burnt Mound (154 metres Above Ordnance Datum); and a closer example, a small freestanding tor equally close to the coast, Cilifor Top at 118 metres. The coast here consists of broad and long Llanrhidian Marsh followed by similar-size (tidal) Llanrhidian Sands and then the relatively thinly watered Loughor Estuary at low tide; Llanelli, Pwll and Burry Port (Porth Tywyn) face the other side of the estuary and lack such a marsh habitat though have more mudflats in places. Llanrhidian Lower has a community council of six councillors, who meet monthly at Llanrhidian Community Hall.

Cathole Cave, Cat Hole Cave or Cathole Rock Cave, is a cave near Parc Cwm long cairn at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula, Wales. It is a steep limestone outcrop, about 200 yards (180 m) north of the cromlech along the Parc le Breos Cwm valley and near the top of the gorge, about 50 feet (15 m) from the valley floor. The cave is a deep triangular fissure penetrating the hillside and narrowing towards the top. It has two entrances, with a natural platform outside the larger of the two. It is about seven 1⁄2 miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea, Wales, in what is now known as Coed y Parc Cwm at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula. The cave was used as a shelter by bands of Mesolithic hunters and as a Neolithic ossuary. During the first excavation of the cave in 1864, finds were made only from the Mesolithic to medieval periods. In his "The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society vol.25 (1959), pp. 260–69", archaeologist Charles McBurney notes that "In the Post Glacial period the cave was much used by Mesolithic hunters"; a conclusion confirmed by John Campbell's excavation of 1977.A 1984 excavation by Aldhouse-Green revealed the earliest finds from the cave, two tanged points that may date to c. 28,000 BP, an interglacial period during the Late Pleistocene roughly contemporaneous with the Red Lady of Paviland. The "lady" was discovered in a cave between Port Eynon and Rhossili, about eight miles (13 km) west of Cathole Cave, and has been radiocarbon dated to c. 29,000 BP, the oldest known human burial in Great Britain.Rock art from the Upper Paleolithic, thought to represent a reindeer, was discovered on the back wall of Cathole Cave in September 2010. The engraving, measuring approximately 15 x 11 cm, has been radiocarbon dated to 14,505 ± 560 BP. According to George Nash, the archeologist who made the discovery, it is "the oldest rock art in the British Isles, if not north-western Europe". Following the discovery, the cave was laser-scanned (using point-cloud technology). Following this project and systematic vandalism, the entrance of the cave was gated with a metal grille. Despite this set-back Nash has made further discoveries. Other marks/motifs of a possible similar date have been found elsewhere within the rear section of the cave. Late glacial tool finds from the Upper Palaeolithic date to c. 12,000 BP: flint blades known as Cheddar points; smaller bladelets known as Cresswell points; scrapers; burins or lithic flakes; flint and bone awls; and a bone needle. Flint rarely occurs in Wales other than in drifts, or as small pebbles on beaches. Flint tools would therefore have to have been brought to Gower from other areas, such as those now known as southern or eastern England, or Antrim, either as finished tools or as incomplete, or unworked, nodules. Remains of red fox, Arctic fox, brown bear, tundra vole, and possibly reindeer, were found at the same level as the Upper Palaeolithic tools, providing evidence of the climate c. 12,000 BP. Other animal remains excavated during the 19th century, which may predate the Late glacial finds, include mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, red deer and giant deer.Several finds date to the Bronze Age, including a bronze socketed axe, two human skeletons, and sherds of pottery from burial urns and other vessels.

Parc Cwm long cairn (Welsh: carn hir Parc Cwm), also known as Parc le Breos burial chamber (siambr gladdu Parc le Breos), is a partly restored Neolithic chambered tomb, identified in 1937 as a Severn-Cotswold type of chambered long barrow. The cromlech, a megalithic burial chamber, was built around 5850 years before present (BP), during the early Neolithic. It is about seven 1⁄2 miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea, Wales, in what is now known as Coed y Parc Cwm at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula. A trapezoidal cairn of rubble – the upper part of the cromlech and its earth covering now removed – about 72 feet (22 m) long by 43 feet (13 m) (at its widest), is revetted by a low dry-stone wall. A bell-shaped, south-facing forecourt, formed by the wall, leads to a central passageway lined with limestone slabs set on end. Human remains had been placed in the two pairs of stone chambers that lead from the passageway. Corpses may have been placed in nearby caves until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb. The cromlech was discovered in 1869 by workmen digging for road stone. An excavation later that year revealed human bones (now known to have belonged to at least 40 people), animal remains, and Neolithic pottery. Samples from the site show the tomb to have been in use for between 300 and 800 years. North-West European lifestyles changed around 6000 BP, from the nomadic lives of the hunter-gatherer, to a settled life of agricultural farming: the Neolithic Revolution. However, analysis of the human remains found at Parc Cwm long cairn show the people interred in the cromlech continued to be either hunter-gatherers or herders, rather than agricultural farmers. Parc Cwm long cairn lies in a former medieval deer park, established in the 1220s CE by the Marcher Lord of Gower as Parc le Breos – an enclosed area of about 2,000 acres (810 ha), now mainly farmland. The cromlech is on the floor of a dry narrow limestone gorge containing about 500 acres (2.0 km2) of woodland. Free pedestrian access is via an asphalt track leading from the park's entrance, which has free parking for 12–15 cars about 250 yards (230 m) from the site. Parc Cwm long cairn is maintained by Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment division.

Parc le Breos was a great medieval deer park in the south of the Gower Peninsula, about eight miles (13 km) west of Swansea, Wales, and about 1+1⁄4 miles (2.0 km) north of the Bristol Channel. The park was an enclosed, oval area of 6.7 miles (10.8 km) in circumference, covering about 2,000 acres (810 ha) and measuring 2+1⁄2 miles (east–west) by just over 1+3⁄4 miles (4.1 km by 2.9 km). Parc le Breos was established in the 1220s CE by John de Braose (of the powerful Cambro-Norman de Braose dynasty), Marcher Lord of Gower and husband to Margaret Ferch Llywelyn, Llywelyn Fawr's daughter. Other than for deer husbandry, the park received an income from agistment, pannage, and from sales of wild honey, ferns and dead wood. There is evidence of rabbit warrens in the park. Whether the warrens were free or domestic is unknown.The park's boundary was originally marked by a wooden fence, or pale, on the top of an earth bank inside a ditch. Some parts of the pale survive.Prehistoric finds and an Iron Age enclosure (above Parkmill) show the area of Parc le Breos to have been settled by modern humans since the earliest times.

Cefn Bryn is an ancient ridge in Britain. It is a 5-mile-long Old Red Sandstone ridge in south Wales, in the heart of the Gower Peninsula, in the City and County of Swansea. Local people colloquially refer to it as the "backbone of Gower", as it protrudes from surrounding limestone. The highest point on the ridge (188m/617 ft [1]) is the second highest point in the peninsula, offering panoramic views of the surrounding country and seas. The swathes of grassland around the ridge are known as Cefn Bryn Common. Along the ridge of the hill, banked by grassy common on both sides is the road from Cilibion to Reynoldston. The road was previously known as the Old Coal Road and Red Road. Wandering sheep, wild ponies and cows can be seen along the road. Large swells and dips can be encountered along the route, formed by swallets and sinkholes in the surrounding limestone. The highest point of the road intersects with the ridge summit.

Penclawdd railway station served the village of Penclawdd, in the historic county of Glamorgan, Wales, from 1867 to 1931 on the Llanmorlais branch.