The northern aspect of Rhossili Bay’s immense tableau of beach is popularly known as the Llangennith Sands and is characterised by both its high-backed dunes and the numerous surfers who decorate the sea here no matter the weather conditions.

Best reached via Hill End, where a wooden slat path leads from the car park, through the dunes, to the bay, the Llangennith Sands is a gloriously wild payground. A flurry of colourful kites and windsails billowing in the Atlantic driven wind lend an excitement to the atmosphere of the beach, seducing even the most unsporty of visitors to take a deep inhalation of the salt-laden air and pick up their pace along the sands and get their circulation pumping in a brisker fashion.

In colder seasons, forbidding the removal of shoes and socks, Dile’s Lake – an inconsiderable stream meandering down from the foot of Rhossili Downs and dissecting the beach as it heads for the Atlantic Ocean, must be negotiated if the quiet end of Llangennith Sands is desired. Even the most careful tiptoeing from stone to stone across these crystalline waters, however, will seldom be rewarded with perfectly dry feet by the time the traverse is complete.

At low tide, the remains of the shipwreck ‘The City of Bristol’ can be seen protruding from the waves between Dile’s Lake and the distant tidal islet of Burry Holmes.