Photos of Cottage
Welcome to Heather Cottage
Newly refurbished in 2016
The Lounge kitchen
Easy Parking to front door
Heather Cottage March 2016
triple glazing for heat and sound proofing
Huge Bed
Delightfully private
Rear View from Heather Cottage
Rural Private Lane location
Catchpool Lane
Rear access lane to the cottage
View to patio
Well Insulated refurb
Travertine Tiling
Parking Zone
Well Lit parking
Pioneer Clearview Logburner
Bake potatoes or warm and casserole on the oven shelf
Laundry Facilities
Well Laid Out for Space
Shaving point in mirror
swipe activated mirror lighting and travertine tiling
Clearview woodburner
Logs supplied by owners no charge
Garden Patio Area
By all means explore the wider gardens and use our fresh herbs
Kitchen area with TV
Solid Oak Table
Lounge area
Bathroom
Shower screen
Electric and mixer showers both installed
Bedroom is spacious
Super King Bed 6ft x 6ft and all Oak furniture
Oak Milano Furniture
Open for Business
It is really warm and cosy with this big beast firing on all cylinders 6.5kw
Bedroom is light
Patio Lighting
BT TV Box with Sport and Films
Opening day
Heather Howells (owner) on right in blue showing friends the new cottage
Lounge Bedroom Windows
More aspects
First ever guests
We gave them a free week 8 years later to thank them
Garden Patio looks west
Its more mature now than then
Side Patio Aspect
Private area
Back in 2016
10am one day
Looking West
Looking North
Looking East
Doubler
Looking North
Expect our cat to visit
New Roof and Triple Glazing
Evening Sun on Patio
Looking North West
Gardens have matured somewhat since then, new photos required now
Peaceful haven
Kitchen Facilities
Kitchen with Range Cooker
Washer and Dryer
Kitchen Sink View
Lounge view to Garden
Various Entertainments
As of 2025 we now have a BT BOX with Sky and TNT HD Sports and SKY Cinema plus streaming services (bring your own passwords for Netflix Disney and Prime)
More Bedroom Photos
Walk to the Whiteford Bay in around 20 mins
Different Aspect
Did you know Gower people never call it The Gower just Gower
Decent Bedside Radios
With Alarm
EnSuite Bathroom
Similar Photos
Port Eynon is around a 20 mins drive away
Rhossili Village
Rhossili Village is approximately 23 mins drive away
Oxwich Bay
Oxwich Bay is maybe 15-17 mins drive away
Broughton Beach
Broughton Beach can be walked to in 20 mins and we walk our dogs there most days
Super King Bed
Llanmadoc Hill is behind the Cottage and you can climb to the top from the lane area via rattle street and see some spectacular views
South view from bedroom
You can walk to Llangennith Village over Llanmadoc Hill in 30 mins or so
Basin and WC
Mirror has toothbrush or shaver point
One of two showers
Yes its a MIRA Jump Electric Shower. There's also a raindrop type mixer shower too.
Mixer Shower
As per last photo
A photo of shower wall
Not a very interesting photo really
Lounge area to Patio
Just enough furniture
Kitchen at Heather Cottage
The tiles are Metro
Lightfittings
Who ever booked a cottage because of the light fittings. But there they are anyway
Woodburner Dutch Oven
by Clearview and professionally fitted
Kettle no more
It disappeared one day
Barn feeling
Duplicate to remove
Different Perspective
Shows lay out we hope
Furniture was updated recently
This is now slightly out of date but helps gives the feel of the place
Driveway area
Easy Parking
Oak Lintels above windows
Sunny day in Gower
Aspect of kitchen
Fresh Herbs in Garden
Gower Stone
The shower area
Sunny day again
The sun follows around the bedroom and lounge windows and by evening time it is on the patio
Our Village
Photo taken from owners front door
Bedroom from Bathroom
Front aspect
Village Shop and PO
Shop Open Mon to Saturday 10-4 (Shop is a 2 mins walk). The Post Office opens four days per week 10-12 noon.
The Britannia Inn
Gastro Pub - 5-10 mins stroll
Interior
Patio area
Heather Cottage Gardens
Did you know you can drive to Mumbles Pier and Seafront in around 30 mins from Heather Cottage
Caswell Bay
You can drive to either Caswell Bay or Langland Bay in around 30 mins from Heather Cottage. They are both beautiful bays and you can walk from one to the other eg park at Caswell and walk to Langland following the coast path takes around 45 mins. Then after a panini or coffee in Langland Brasserie you can do the same in reverse
Fall Bay
Fall Bay is on South Gower just east of Rhossili Bay and can be accessed from the cliff edge walk from the coastguard station point at Rhossili . It is seen as the secret or locals beach as it is rarely visited by visitors. But what a stunning beach. Drive to Rhossili park in the NT Car Park there and walk to Fall Bay in around half an hour.
Penmaen and Nicholaston
Pronounced Penmaine and Nichols-tun these two sister villages sit above Three Cliffs Bay and Penmaen Beach a beach that is found at the eastern end of Oxwich Bay. There are around 5 different approaches to getting down to see Three CLiffs Bay. Drive to Southgate and walk down through Pobbles Bay past the Pennard Golf Course or park at Nicholaston Farm and take the path walk, or sometimes you can park at Penmaen Farm and walk down. Or park at Shepherds Ice Cream Cafe at Parkmill. They all take around 20 mins from parking down onto the Three Cliffs beach.
Blue Pool is closer
If you want a lesser well known private beach closer to Llanmadoc then walk to Bluepool which at low to mid tide uncovers a lovely cove beach just west of Broughton Caravan Site. Obviously the two beaches of Broughton and Llanmadoc including the distant point of Berges Island offer huge space and tranquility anyway. But many villager locals spend a day with the kids at Bluepool.
Millwood at Penrice Estate
Millwood is a lovely woodland walk managed by National Trust and Penrice Estate. Parking is at the gate. Drive towards Oxwich but take a sharp right before the Oxwich turning and dip down a hill until you see it on your right.
National Botanical Gardens
are found at Llanarthne just a few minutes on the M4/A48 west of Cross Hands. I takes around 65 mins to drive to it from Heather Cottage but is surely worth a day trip. They have a dogs allowed day which was Fridays check fr details.
Nineteen Ships leave
and nineteen souls lost as only fifteen ships survive. On Sunday 22nd January 1868 a flotilla of ships of set sail from the port of Llanelli In total, nineteen coastal sailing vessels head up the Burry Inlet and out to the open ocean. Each of the ships is carrying between 80 to 400 tonnes of coal and six are lined up on tow behind a single steam tug. The tugs task is to get the sailing vessels clear of Burry Holms, the point at which they can safely set sail under their own canvas. This night is relatively still and the sailors are at ease, but suddenly the wind dies down to nothing and the tide turns. The swell of the sea starts to build Although the ships drop anchor, they find themselves being dragged along the sea bed. As the waves rise and fall the boats are lifted up before being smashed onto sandbanks. Many boats lose their bottoms this way and simply sink in the middle of the estuary, Others are dashed onto the rocks or washed up along the beach. The beach from Whiteford Point to Burry Holms was strewn with the detritus from the night before. In all nineteen lives were lost as well as four ships belonging to Llanelli; the Onward, Amethyst and Jennie Celine foundered with all hands,
Weobley Castle is a fortified
Mansion currently owned by a local farmer Roland Pritchard. He also sells Gower salt-marsh lamb.
Slade Bay
Slade is a specific place and bay found just south west of Oxwich Village. But the name Slade is also found in many other names and bays around gower eg Limeslade, Mewslade, Rotherslade, and Deepslade. Other fun or different names worth checking out are Hunts Bay, Crabbart, Overton Mere, Three Chimneys, Spaniard Rocks, Elephant Head, Prissens Tor, King Arthur's Stone, Stouthall, Cadiz Hall and many more are worth reading up on or asking about.
Gower Stone in front wall
Gower has three or four main types of stone which when you drive around you will see in its stonewalls and buildings. Problem is that unlike Bath, the Cotswolds, Aberdeen or Berwick, there's no one single predominant stone as such. There is also not really one single local vernacular of building style. Kennexstone Cottage was removed stone by stone and relocated in St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life many decades ago. But the reason for this different stones is Gowers geology with synclynes and anticlynes which means different geology types all feature somewhere. So you will often see walls made up of old red sandstone plus Gower Quartz Conglomerate Millstone Grit and limestone. If you'd like to see all of them see our Wagtails Cottage photos. We preserved a heart of stone in the interior wall. The last ice age ice sheets sandpapered Gower's hills into their current rounded tops. But the harder stones survived this process eg top of Rhossili Down, Llanmadoc Hill, or Cefn Bryn (pronounced locally as Kevin Brin) , all of which form the three high points of west Gower
Scarlets or Ospreys
The people of north west Gower have a certain distinctiveness about them compared to the Swansea Jacks. It is typical for folk from Landimore Llanmadoc and Llanrhidian to support Llanellli Scarlets RFC and not Swansea Neath Ospreys RFC . MOre Welsh language is spoken in these villages too. And people seem to travel to Parc Trostre in Llanelli to do their weekly shop rather than Swansea's several retail parks. It's just a long time cultural tribal thing that's all. There's plenty living here from other parts or Wales or the UK and we all give each other a good old ribbing but it is all friendly.
Dont say THE Gower
Just call it Gower. This is a local bugbear. Folk from Swansea and Cardiff call Gower THE GOWER but locals just call it Gower.
Funny Welsh words
The unofficial official welsh language word for a Microwave Oven is popty-ping, and welsh kids unofficially call jellyfish WIBBLY WOBBLY. The welsh word for carrot is MORON. And in some parts of Wales they call the ChipShop SIOPCHIP. To Iron is Smoothio. Finally, Chwit-chwat means indecisive or fickle or inconsistent (haha).
St Madocs Church
Steeped in history
Prevailing wind
The trees prove that our prevailing wind is indeed west to south west. Or is it south to south west
Local Inn with Food
The Brit (Britannia Inn) has a huge beer garden with estuary views at the rear. Martin and Lindsay have run the local pub since 2006 and have forged a reputation for excellent food.
Walks from the cottage
If you take the Broughton Beach walk this is the view that greets you from the top of Whiteford Bay Leisure Park before you walk through the park (or around it) to get to the beach. This is Broughton Beach at near high tide. Bluepool and Blackrock are around the rocky headland distant.
Cheriton Pill below Llanmadoc
At the north eastern side of Berges Island the estuary and marshes and pills start to form. This one is Cheriton Pill, which allows water right up to within 50m of the Britannia Inn at spring tides. All of this marshland is flooded on spring tides (but not the woods and dunes to the far top left). And it has been decided by Natural Resources Wales to allow the sea to reclaim the area of Marsh to the left which used to have an unbreached dyke / seawall protecting it until it was breached in 2010 or thereabouts.
Heather Cottage
Taken from Llanmadoc Hill. Tide is around half way in.
Llanmadoc Village
from Llanmadoc Hill. Pembrey Beach and Country Park (aka Cefn Sidan Beach) is opposite.
The Great War 1914-1918
We put this photo here as a nod to all the soldiers who fought in the two world wars. These three guys from Port Talbot were brothers who fought together in the Great War of 2014-2018 with the Royal Horse Artillery. Their names were William (LEFT born 1892) Stanley (RIGHT born 1894) and Lawrence (CENTRE born 1896). There were three other brothers one of whom aged 15 (Sam) was sent home from the battlefield for being underage. He was fortunate to have been spotted by his older brother in manouvers and was reported to the lieutenant colonel and promptly sent home (with a few other under age soldiers also discovered) from a battallion which fared badly later on. The oldest brother being William Howells was already 22 when the war started. After the war ended William was sent £10 in 1919 by his former commanding officer (Major Barter) under which William served loyally as a batman. William bought his house in Old Baglan Road (7 Sarnavan) using the money for part of his deposit. As a thank you he named his then new house Menheniot, after the name of the Cornish village from which Major Barter came from. William is Dai's grandfather, and lived with Dai's family as an elderly gentleman in his mid to late 80s when Dai was a 9-12yr old. Dai was born in 1967 and his dad who served in WW2 was born in 1925. All four brothers survived The Great War of 1914-1918, despite the (older) three of them fighting with RHA at the great and bloody Passchendaele Offensive near Ypres in 1917. Sadly William's wife Mary lost her brother Williams Croke aged 19, killed by a shell as he stretchered a wounded soldier off the battlefield.
Williams Howells RHA
Photo Taken 17th Feb 1916, and depicts William Howells (standing up, born 1892) home from the Great War briefly, with his father Samuel Howells (born 1872). William survived the War and worked at Velindre Wagon Works in Port Talbot (now a TESCOs store) until his retirement.
William Howells RoyalHorseArtl
Taken in Port Talbot in Feb 1916. A soldier of the Great War.