Celtic Ocean Home :  Places, Towns & Cities : Swansea

Swansea, City & County of Swansea

The City of Swansea is an ideal holiday resort, with a wealth of activities to offer visitors, in an area of diverse geography. The sea, beaches, rivers, gently undulating countryside and mountains are all within 25 miles of the city and yet, 'a million miles away'.

***********************

About Swansea

1969-2009 - the 40th anniversary of Swansea's city status.

Swansea's Welsh name, Abertawe, means 'the mouth of the River Tawe'.

The Viking invaders had a base here and when the Normans built a castle on the banks of the River Tawe, during the 12th century, Swansea became a busy trading centre.

The Port of Swansea developed in the late 1800's, with the expansion of coal, iron ore, steel and copper; these have all but disappeared, being replaced by imports of wood and exports of general cargo.

Where the western end of the dock was, is now a large and busy marina where the Helwick Lightship and the Tug Canning can be visited. Around the Marina are houses and apartments, shops, restaurants, pubs and the National Waterfront Museum.

On the quayside are statues of Dylan Thomas and ‘Captain Cat’, one of the characters in Dylan's famous play, ‘Under Milk Wood’. The Dylan Thomas Centre has exhibits, dedicated to the life and works of one of Swansea’s most famous sons.

Swansea Indoor Market is, arguably, one of the best in the country and here, amongst thousands of other products, one can buy fresh cockles and that other famous Welsh delicacy, laverbread, 'the poor man's caviar'. Laverbread is a particular type of seaweed found locally at Gower and other areas of the west coast of Britain. Picked from the rocks, washed a number of times to remove sand and grit, it is then boiled for a few hours. Fried with bacon, bread, eggs and of course, cockles, it makes a delicious breakfast.

One can also be tempted with local home-cured ham, cheeses, the famous Welsh Black Beef, Welsh cakes (Pice ar y Maen), local bread such as Bara Brith (bread with dried fruit), vegetables from Gower and mouth-watering choices of fish.

The busy town centre has an excellent selection of independent shops and chain stores together with a superb choice of restaurants, hotels, pubs and clubs.

The Mumbles Railway, which ran from the western edge of what is now the Marina, along the foreshore of Swansea Bay to Mumbles pier, was the oldest passenger railway in the world. One of the trams can be seen at the 'Tram Shed' near to the National Waterfront Museum on the Marina. A pedestrian walk and cycle way now covers the site of the old railway track around the sweep of Swansea Bay which, at night, is something to be seen; a myriad of twinkling, coloured lights.

See also - 'Places Towns & Cities - Swansea Oystermouth and Mumbles'.

Directions

Nearest towns: Port Talbot, Neath, Llanelli. M4 runs just north of the city with good access point at Jctns 42, 44, 45, & 47.