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Gronant Dunes and Talacre Warren

Point of AyrSites of Special Scientific Interest in ClwydUnited Kingdom Site of Special Scientific Interest stubs
Track in the Warren, Point of Ayr geograph.org.uk 7410659
Track in the Warren, Point of Ayr geograph.org.uk 7410659

Gronant Dunes and Talacre Warren is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, along the north Wales coast. The Gronant Dunes form an area of sand dunes along the Denbighshire coast, between Prestatyn and Gronant. The dunes continue further eastwards from the Prestatyn Gutter (which cuts the dune system into two) towards the Point of Ayr in Flintshire, as the Talacre Dunes. Talacre Warren is formed of two dune ridges, with the area along the coast between Talacre and Gronant known as simply "the Warren". While Talacre Beach is the beach along the North Wales Coast. The Warren, and the adjacent Talacre Beach, were home to holiday chalets in the early 1930s. During World War II, the area housed evacuees that fled Merseyside docks and shipyards due to bombing raids, such as the Blitz during 1941. The influx led to a camp of makeshift huts and various other shelters being created, many lacking basic facilities such as running water and electricity. After the war, some chalets became permanent family homes for those sheltered, while the area received increasing tourism. However, by the late 1950s the camp's condition and lack of facilities, led to media and comedians labelling it a "shanty town", warning holidaymakers of a "slum by the sea" and the sanitary conditions of its beach. The labelling upset locals with a councillor of Llanasa Parish Council objecting to the term in 1964. The Morfa Holiday Camp, later Talacre Beach Resort opened in the 1960s. The SSSI is located between Prestatyn and Talacre. It has been designated because of its plant life, insects and birds, and its dune system a home for natterjack toads and Wales' only breeding little tern colony. The dunes in the SSSI are also part of the Dee Estuary Special Area of Conservation. The Gronant Dunes are the last remnants of a wider dune system that spanned across North East Wales, from Rhyl to the Point of Ayr. Most of the other former dunes were replaced with sea walls, as industry, tourism and human settlement increased along the coast, with these remaining sections utilising them for a natural sea defence. The dunes support plant life, such as the rare sea holly, dune fescue, sea spurge, and pyramidal orchid, as well as marram grass. While its rare animals include the brown hare, mining bee, sandhill rustic moth and the skylark. Natterjack toads, and later sand lizards between 2003 and 2006, have been reintroduced, with the sand lizards formerly indigenous to the coast but were driven out due to past human activity in the area.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Gronant Dunes and Talacre Warren (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Gronant Dunes and Talacre Warren
Rhuddlan Court,

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N 53.352 ° E -3.357 °
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Presthaven Sands Holiday Park

Rhuddlan Court
LL19 9SS , Prestatyn
Wales, United Kingdom
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presthavensands.org.uk

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Track in the Warren, Point of Ayr geograph.org.uk 7410659
Track in the Warren, Point of Ayr geograph.org.uk 7410659
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Gwespyr
Gwespyr

Gwespyr is a village in Flintshire on the north coast of Wales in the community of Llanasa. Gwespyr had a population of 289 people in the United Kingdom 2001 census. It overlooks Point of Ayr on the west side of the River Dee estuary and its sandy beaches with dunes. The hills of the Clwydian Range behind the village form the eastern boundary of the Vale of Clwyd. Gwespyr also looks respectively Welsh but is an alien name. It represents Old English for 'West-bury' which came to be interpreted as the 'west fort' meaning the westernmost fort in Mercia. Originally, it is thought to have been a strategic Mercian lookout which was reduced in importance with the development of a fortified Rhuddlan.Gwespyr stone has been quarried in quantity from Roman times and shipped to the rest of the UK and abroad. "Gwespyr Stone" was commercially successful for its grain, colour, and quality of cutting and shaping. It was used for many buildings around Gwespyr, and was also used to build the ancient Maen Achwyfan Cross at Whitford, the chapel at St Winefride's Well in Holywell, stone carvings in Rhuddlan Castle and Denbigh Castle, St Asaph Cathedral, The Talacre Arms Public house in Gwespyr and Basingwerk Abbey in Greenfield, Flintshire. Gwespyr stone was also found on sites such as Prestatyn Castle and the Roman bath house in Prestatyn. There is evidence of the stone industry in Gwespyr prevalent even today, though all but one quarry is disused. The quarry in use today is home to Delyn Metal.

Talacre
Talacre

Talacre is a village in Flintshire on the north coast of Wales in the community of Llanasa and the electoral ward of Ffynnongroyw, and is the northernmost mainland settlement in Wales. The village itself has a population of 347 as of the 2011 census.It is near Point of Ayr on the west side of the River Dee estuary and has a sandy beach with dunes and large holiday caravan parks adjacent. The hills of the Clwydian Range behind the village form the eastern boundary of the Vale of Clwyd. The name Talacre is a combination of the Welsh words tal [tal] "end" and acrau [ˈakraɨ̯] "acres", which in the dialect of north-east Wales is pronounced acre [ˈakrɛ]. This has led to the local English pronunciation . Some sources claim the English version is properly pronounced . The village is probably most popular for the lighthouse on the nearby beach, the Talacre Beach Resort a short walk away from the Presthaven Sands holiday park and its multiple arcades. The lighthouse has been noted for numerous ghostly sightings, people claiming to see a figure wearing old fashioned lighthouse keeper clothes and standing in front of the glass dome of the abandoned lighthouse. The lighthouse was featured in popular British television drama Skins, in the episode "Skins Pure". Talacre was used by the armed forces during the Second World War as an aircraft firing range. Fighters flew over the remote village every day, shooting at wooden targets in the dunes and at drogues towed by aircraft. It was also used for testing new devices such as 'window,' the anti-radar foil that, on occasion, covered the whole village with silver.