Inlet and Estuary - Gower - page 179

CHAPTER 9
Inlet and Estuary
By scummed, starfish sands
With their fishwife cross
Gulls, pipers, cockles and sails
Out there, crow black, men
Tackled with clouds, who kneel
To the sunset nets
Dylan Thomas,
Prologue from The Poems
D AUNTING,DRAMATIC andlonelyarejustafewofthewordsthathavebeenusedtodescribetheBurry
Inlet and Loughor Estuary. It is an untamed place and one of the last refuges of real wilderness in this part
of South Wales. From its seaward end, bounded by the long sandy finger of Whiteford Burrows Nation-
al Nature Reserve in the south and Pembrey Burrows in the north, to the tidal limit close to Pontardulais
and the M 4 motorway it covers more than 9,500 hectares. It is the largest estuarine complex wholly within
Wales and dominates the north side of the peninsula, forming a real divide between Gower and Llanelli to
the northwest. At low water,due to the wide tidal fluctuations (about 8metres onaverage) over 70per cent
of this vast area is exposed on a regular basis, revealing a shifting landscape of sandbars, mud and glisten-
ing water channels. During spring tides 1,400 million cubic metres of sea water enter and leave the estuary
twice daily. The inlet and estuary is a complex region where salt water meets fresh water, sea meets land
and the seasons and tide bring constant, but cyclical, change.
Estuariesaredefinedasthedownstreampartofarivervalley,subjecttothetideandextendingfromthe
limit of brackish water, while marine inlets are defined as areas where sea water is not significantly diluted
by fresh water. Using these definitions most of the area under consideration is an inlet, but to many people,
locals and visitors, it is simply 'the Burry' or 'the estuary' or 'the Burry Estuary' (Fig. 100). Together with
the nearby estuaries of the Taf, the Tywi and the Gwendraeth ('the three rivers') the River Loughor forms
a single functional unit around the inlet, and research has shown that there are important interchanges of
sediment and species between the four areas. A substantial area of South Wales drains, from the source of
the Loughor on the Black Mountain, through the estuary and inlet to the Bristol Channel.
The national and international importance of the area is reflected in a multitude of often overlapping
designations. There are five Sites of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSI ) within and around the estuary and
one National Nature Reserve ( NNR); it is a Ramsar site under the 1971 International Wetlands Convention,
a Special Protection Area ( SPA ) for wild birds, a Special Area of Conservation ( SAC ) under the European
HabitatsDirective,aGeologicalConservationReview( GCR )site,andofcoursemostoftheinletfallswith-
in the AONB . In addition there are extensive National Trust properties and six Wildlife Trust reserves along
the southern shore. But the area is much more than the sum of its constituent parts.