1. Looking at the tidal island of Worm’s Head from the cliff top of the Rhossili Headland on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales.
I had often enjoyed exploring the rocks, gullies, and pools of the wave cut platform which forms a causeway between the Rhossili Headland and the tidal island of Worm’s Head. It was not until last year, on a glorious April day with a particularly low spring tide, that I actually ventured onto the island itself for the first time. The Worm’s Head is divided into several sections. The largest and probably the highest of which is the Inner Head. A section known as The Long Neck connects this to the Middle Head with its famous Devil’s Bridge on the way to the Outer Head.
The island is composed of Carboniferous Limestone but the rock layers become younger from east to west, passing from Black Rock Limestone Group, to Gully Oolite, and then High Tor Limestone. I decided to walk along the shore on the westerly side of the island. To see what I saw, look at the pictures in the gallery below. If you click on any picture in the gallery you can view the photographs in slideshow format with their captions.
I walked along the beach as far as the Long Neck, which is a narrow stretch of jagged rocks formed by steeply sloping strata that connects the Inner Head to the Middle Head. It looked quite difficult to negotiate the crossing although many people were having fun trying to do it. However, fearing that I might not have enough time to reach the Outer Head before the tide returned and covered the causeway again, I then turned round and followed the footpath at the base of Inner Head. The west flank of the hill was covered with bright yellow gorse flowers and patches of wild violets. It was a beautiful walk and I hope it won’t be long before I visit again to explore the rest of the island.
19. Red haematite in Carboniferous limestone at Worm’s Head
9. Close-up of Gully Oolite bioclastic limestone with fossils
5. Closer view of the Inner Head of the Worm’s Head from the rocky shore on the west side.
15. Western shore of Inner Head at Worm’s Head showing red haematite amongst the Carboniferous Limestone.
23. Pattern and texture of red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
7. The wave-cut rock platform of the Worm’s Head Causeway in Gower, South Wales
31. Natural fracture patterns in Carboniferous Limestone (Gully Oolite) on the western shore of the Inner Head at Worm’s Head tidal island.
32. Natural fracture patterns in Carboniferous Limestone (Gully Oolite) on the western shore of the Inner Head at Worm’s Head tidal island.
50. Information signs on the tidal island of Worm’s Head, Gower, South Wales.
18. Red haematite in Carboniferous limestone at Worm’s Head
26. Pattern and texture of red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
30. White lace-like pattern of bleached seaweed on rocks at Worm’s Head
27. Pattern and texture of red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
46. Foot path at the base of Inner Head, west side, looking south, on Worm’s Head, Gower.
25. Pattern and texture of red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
44. Kelp beds fringing the west-side wave-cut platform exposed by a very low tide at Worm’s Head, Gower.
20. Red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
35. View looking north across a wave-cut platform towards the Outer Head and Middle Head with the Devil’s Bridge, seen from the west side of the Inner Head on Worm’s Head Island, Gower, South Wales.
36. The Devil’s Bridge rock formation on Middle Head at Worm’s Head in Gower
34. View of the wave cut rock platform between Inner Head and Outer Head on the Worm’s Head tidal island
43. People clambering over the steeply inclined sharp rock strata of the Low Neck connecting Inner and Middle Head on Worm’s Head Island
13. Gully Oolite on the west shore of Inner Head at Worms’s Head tidal island
47. Wild violets growing in profusion on the grassy west slope of Inner Head on Worm’s Head Island in Gower.
42. Fossil-filled Gully Oolite Carboniferous limestone outcrop with crinoid stems on Worms Head
38. Fossil-filled Gully Oolite Carboniferous limestone outcrop on Worms Head
16. Red haematite in Carboniferous limestone at Worm’s Head
14. Close-up detail of Gully Oolite on the west shore of Inner Head at Worms’s Head tidal island
29. White lacey pattern of bleached seaweed on rocks at Worm’s Head
48. Gorse flowers that cloak the lower west slope of Inner Head, Worm’s Head, in April.
6. The top of the Inner Head showing steeply inclined Carboniferous Limestone strata.
22. Pattern and texture of red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
37. View looking towards, Low Neck, Middle Head, and Outer Head from Inner Head at Worm’s Head island, showing raised beach deposits.
8. Gully Oolite limestone on the west shore of the Inner Head of the Worm’s Head tidal island.
17. Red haematite in Carboniferous limestone at Worm’s Head
28. Natural fracture patterns in Carboniferous limestone on the west shore of Worm’s Head
39. Fossil-filled Gully Oolite Carboniferous limestone outcrop on Worms Head
33. Wave-cut platform of Carboniferous Gully Oolite shore-wards, and High Tor Limestone seawards, on Worm’s Head Island
3. View of the east side of the Worm’s Head from the foot of the Rhossili Headland in Gower, South Wales, waiting for the tide to recede from the rocky causeway to walk over to the island.
21. Red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
24. Pattern and texture of red haematite in Carboniferous Limestone at Worm’s Head
45. Kelp beds fringing the west-side wave-cut platform exposed by a very low tide at Worm’s Head, Gower.
11. Cross-sectional fossil coral in Gully Oolite on the western shore of the Worms Head
40. Fossil-filled Gully Oolite Carboniferous limestone outcrop on Worms Head
4. Walking across the rocky wave-cut platform of the causeway towards the tidal island of Worm’s Head, looking at it from the west. It looks very different from each direction.
41. Fossil-filled Gully Oolite Carboniferous limestone outcrop on Worms Head
49. Looking up to the summit of Inner Head from the footpath that runs around the base of its west slope, Worm’s Head, Gower, South Wales.
10. Close-up of Gully Oolite bioclastic limestone with coral fossils on the Worms Head, Gower.
12. West shore of Inner Head at Worms’s Head
2. Walking down the zig-zag path from the Coastguard Lookout on the Rhossili Headland to approach the Worm’s Head Causeway at the tip of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales
12 Replies to “The West Side of Worm’s Head”
Like like a wonderful place to explore. The Pattern and texture of red haematite in the Carboniferous Limestone is fascinating.
Thank you, Central Ohio Nature. It is a great place that has always attracted many visitors. The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas famously got stuck on Worms Head when the sea rapidly covered the causeway and cut off the way back to the mainland.
We would like to go back and properly explore the Gower this coming Summer. I’m not sure if its my laptop but I cant see these as a slideshow, but if I click on one photo they do enlarge as singles then there is the option to click next or previous. Either way, lovely inspiring photos Jessica.
Thank you, Julie. Gower is a rewarding place to visit however many times you go there. I hope you get the chance to explore it some more this summer. (There are two slideshow formats on WordPress, one automatically loads the images to view in sequence but in the other, as in this case, they are loaded manually by clicking the forward and backward arrows).
Looks like an incredibly rich source of interesting things to see – must be difficult not to get caught out by the tide! The Devil’s Bridge looks amazing.
It is a huge draw for visitors but most of them are are intent on making the walk to the Outer Head before the tide turns. I don’t think the majority have time to appreciate just how special a place it is. Coastguards watch the causeway through binoculars at all times during low tide so that they can rapidly respond if anyone gets into difficulties on the rocks or looks as if they are leaving the return journey too late. I guess it must happen quite frequently to warrant two volunteers monitoring the situation each time the causeway is exposed in daylight hours.
The ring-shaped fossil is part of a crinoid or sea-lily which is related to the starfish and sea urchins. The stalk by which the animal attaches to the seabed is made up of a series of articulated ossicles, a bit like vertebrae in a spine. In this piece of rock there are thousands of small and sometimes broken ossicles from crinoid stalks or other parts such as cirri and the crown. The ring is one of the larger ossicles viewed from its articulating surface.
Jessica's Nature Blog 
Like like a wonderful place to explore. The Pattern and texture of red haematite in the Carboniferous Limestone is fascinating.
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What an exciting place. Thank you for showing it to us. Can’t wait for you to go back.
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Thank you, Central Ohio Nature. It is a great place that has always attracted many visitors. The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas famously got stuck on Worms Head when the sea rapidly covered the causeway and cut off the way back to the mainland.
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Thank you, Linda. I expect that I shall get to visit Worm’s Head again some time later this year.
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We would like to go back and properly explore the Gower this coming Summer. I’m not sure if its my laptop but I cant see these as a slideshow, but if I click on one photo they do enlarge as singles then there is the option to click next or previous. Either way, lovely inspiring photos Jessica.
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Such a wonderful, and fascinating place you have there, Jessica. Your photos are beautiful. 🙂
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It is indeed a fantastic place, Julie. Thank you for your comments.
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Thank you, Julie. Gower is a rewarding place to visit however many times you go there. I hope you get the chance to explore it some more this summer. (There are two slideshow formats on WordPress, one automatically loads the images to view in sequence but in the other, as in this case, they are loaded manually by clicking the forward and backward arrows).
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Looks like an incredibly rich source of interesting things to see – must be difficult not to get caught out by the tide! The Devil’s Bridge looks amazing.
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It is a huge draw for visitors but most of them are are intent on making the walk to the Outer Head before the tide turns. I don’t think the majority have time to appreciate just how special a place it is. Coastguards watch the causeway through binoculars at all times during low tide so that they can rapidly respond if anyone gets into difficulties on the rocks or looks as if they are leaving the return journey too late. I guess it must happen quite frequently to warrant two volunteers monitoring the situation each time the causeway is exposed in daylight hours.
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Jessica, in #39 what is the ring fossil? Is it part of a Gastropod?
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The ring-shaped fossil is part of a crinoid or sea-lily which is related to the starfish and sea urchins. The stalk by which the animal attaches to the seabed is made up of a series of articulated ossicles, a bit like vertebrae in a spine. In this piece of rock there are thousands of small and sometimes broken ossicles from crinoid stalks or other parts such as cirri and the crown. The ring is one of the larger ossicles viewed from its articulating surface.
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