Sunset over Nash Point on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, South Wales in winter.

© AWL Images/DanitaDelimont.co

Sunsets and shipwrecks. Sunsets and shipwrecks at Nash Point

This stunning section of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast in south Wales is beautiful - but treacherous. Beneath those waves are said to be hundreds of shipwrecks dating back to the Roman era. In 1831, a notorious accident on the Nash Sands sandbanks killed all 78 passengers on a steam vessel called The Frolic. The following year a lighthouse was built at Nash Point, to guide vessels to safety. Today’s visitors still need to be wary of rock falls and surging tides however, as this stretch of the coast overlooks the Severn Estuary, which has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world.

Those cliffs of blue lias limestone layers in our homepage image are rich in fossils - particularly ammonites, sea creatures from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Some believe the formation at Nash Point resembles a certain ancient Egyptian monument from some angles, earning it the nickname the Welsh Sphinx. If fossil hunting and ancient rocks are not your thing - there are still stunning seascapes, secluded coves, wooded valleys, villages and a lighthouse to explore here, not to mention wildlife - from tuberous thistles growing around the lighthouse to porpoises in the waters by the sand bank.