Visiting Swansea

Swansea, is known in Welsh as Abertawe, since it stands at the point by Gower where the River Tawe, dropping from its source in the Black Mountain of Carmarthenshire, opens into the Swansea Bay of the Bristol Channel. The name Swansea is very old, accepted as being derived from the name of a Viking rover who plundered these coasts in the 9th-century and made a settlement afterwards known as Sweyn's Ea.  Seals, regularly haunted the shores and the islets out to sea and were called "sea-swine" .  The charter granted by Kind John of England using the name Seinnzey.  In 1099 the Norman Henry Beaumont of Newburgh seized Gower and built a castle where Swansea now is.  What now stands as Swansea Castle is the relic of a manor house, fortified and erected by Henry Gower, Bishop of St David's about 1340.  It was largely destroyd by Owain Glyndwr at the beginning of the 15th-century.

Swansea has the oldest museum in Wales built in 1841 and university founded in 1920.   The city centre is modern and pleasant, though arguably the most impressive part of is the Maritime Quarter.  The centrepience of this modern development is the old dock, which has been transformed into a marina and surrounded by stylish waterfront buildings.  Look out for the modern sculptures on the walls and by the walkways, which add to the charm of this well thought out architecturally adventurous development.   A former warehouse on the waterfront has been converted in a Maritime and Industrial Museum tracing the development of Swansea as a port.   

Welsh is occasionally spoken as a first language in the Swansea streets. 'Old' Swansea also lives on in the city's covered market, which is probably the best fresh foods market in Wales.  A jar of cockles, freshly picked from the nearby Penclawdd cockle beds on the Gower Peninsula, can be purchased together with laverbread - a uniquely Welsh delicacy which may look like a strange black paste but is made from health-giving seaweed and makes a most tasty accompaniment to bacon and eggs.

Additional Information

Awarded city status in 1974. 

Famous Swansea people include - 

Beau Nash, dictator of manners and fashion in 18th-century Bath.

Dylan Thomas, Wales' famous poet and playwright - "Under Milk Wood" born 1914. 

Catherine Zeta Jones, born in 1969, actress, married to Michael Douglas.