Cambria Sports Culture CIC Cymraeg

All walksCarmarthenshire Coast

Carmarthenshire Coast

Pembrey Burrows and Cefn Sidan

Pine forest and dunes behind an eight-mile beach, with firm level tracks through the woods and the sand stretching further than you can see.

Distance
3.7 mi / 6 km
Time
2 hr
Ascent
50 m
Difficulty
Easy
Shape
Circular

Where it is

The circle shows the general area, not the exact start. Use the directions link below to get to the car park itself. Contours and paths shown are OpenTopoMap, drawn from OpenStreetMap data.

The route

Forest tracks loop through the park and out to the beach through the dunes. The tracks are surfaced and level; the beach is vast and flat.

Worth knowing

  • Cefn Sidan is one of the longest beaches in Britain. At low tide the sand runs out for hundreds of metres.
  • The forest was planted on the dunes in the 1920s to stabilise them.
  • The park has a dry ski slope, a toboggan run and a miniature railway, so it is busy with families.

What you’ll see

Pine woods, dune slacks with orchids in early summer, and the beach with Gower across the bay.

Background

Cefn Sidan was notorious for shipwrecks; the sands claimed hundreds of vessels and wreckers worked the coast into the nineteenth century.