Robin Turner tells us why he loves Gower so much...
Victorian huts at Langland Bay, Gower
The distinctive palm trees of Mumbles and Langland Bay which swish magnificently in the cooling breeze have thankfully made it through the ice.
The bees are buzzing in the hedgerows and bats flit playfully in the crimson sunsets we've all been enjoying.
Swansea Bay itself has been a pale blue mirror. In Langland Bay, the teenage playground of film star Catherine Zeta-Jones, Swansea council is expanding its revival of the historic beach huts.
The pastel coloured, wooden structures which have adorned the bay since the 1920s have rightly attained iconic status.
When Swansea council introduced a £10,000 lease scheme a few years ago to pay for renovations, it was feared it might push the huts out of the range of many ordinary Swansea families who have enjoyed the huts for decades, on a lottery basis.
But if the scheme saves the huts from the ravages of time it can only be a good thing.
While the Langland Bay beach huts grab all the glory in postcards, photographs and countless paintings, one of the hidden gems of Gower lies a little further to the west.
The so-called Stones Field Shacks, a motley collection of quirkily angled huts in light blue, pink and old-fashioned green, give a Caribbean feel to the steep hill which leads down from Penmaen to one of Gower's real treasures, Three Cliffs Bay.
The huts are spread out along the hill, overlooking the bay with its rocky arch, the beach and the beautiful river which runs into it, and to the east sands ancient Pennard Castle, the medieval fortress which was abandoned after being buried in sand.
I have often climbed up the limestone-studded hill path past the shacks, with a tired Jack Russell under my arm, and watched enviously as residents sit back admiring the magnificent view with glasses of cold bubbly in hand.
Come to think of it, a lease scheme for one of these heavenly "shacks" would be a good idea. But for some reason, I don't think they'll come on the market anytime soon!
Extracted from www.walesonline.co.uk (April 2011)
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Langland Bay Huts get thumbs up from journalist 
