Poor Mumbles. The attractive, pocket-sized town at the southern end of Swansea Bay is so often bypassed in the scramble to get to Three Cliffs Bay, Rhossili and the other highlights of the Gower. The vast majority of visitors to the peninsula miss out on both the picturesque seal-strewn coast to the south of what is (whisper it) a suburb of Swansea and cracking little finds such as Langland Cove guesthouse.
Over the past four years, Carwyn and Sarah – as friendly and welcoming a couple as you’re likely to meet – have turned this B&B into a place anyone might like to call home.
“It was originally built as an inn,” Sarah tells my friend Ana and me, proffering a faded black-and-white postcard showing the building in its Victorian incarnation. It was converted into student accommodation and then into a guesthouse.
“Not long after we bought it,” local boy Carwyn adds, “we were approached by [Swansea-based designer] Tamsin Leech-Griffiths, who asked us if we could be her first ever interiors project.”
Bravely but wisely, they said yes. Tamsin, a former fashion designer for Toast and Paul Smith, chose chocolate browns, greys and deep blues for the four en suite bedrooms, furnishing them in unfussy contemporary style. Twin anglepoise lamps over the beds are perhaps the only detailing that cries, “Hey, look at me!”
The telly is a sideshow rather than a focal point, and the walls are a miniature gallery of local landscape paintings, all for sale. (“We don’t take a commission, so everything goes to the artists,” Carwyn points out.) There are slippers and robes, and a mini-fridge containing milk and real coffee for the cafetière, and a plate of homemade bite-size cakes.
Before arriving we’d let rip at LC Swansea, Wales’s largest water park, being patiently coached to something approaching surfing prowess on the wave machine, before tackling the climbing wall. Somewhat broken, we hobbled across to 29-storey Meridian Tower – the tallest building in Wales, apparently – and its top-floor Grape and Olive restaurant. The food was unspectacular but the views of Swansea Bay were peachy – or would have been but for an ill-timed sea fret that enveloped the tower.
Breakfast at Langland Cove next day is served at a communal table. We’re a multinational gathering, talking over the troubles of the world and agreeing that there are a mighty bad lot of people in charge right now.
“Some mornings I come in and there’s silence,” Carwyn tells us, “but it usually works.”
We resist pancakes and maple syrup and start with freshly made strawberry-and-banana smoothies. Ana gives her eggs Benedict the thumbs up while I tuck into granola, toast and raspberry jam – all homemade, as is a chutney whose ingredients were grown on Sarah and Carwyn’s allotment.
Afterwards, we stroll around the scenic Gower Coast Path; partake of joyously mindless feats of hand-eye coordination at the slots by Mumbles Pier; poke about medieval Oystermouth Castle; and lunch alfresco at Verdi’s on the seafront. At length, we head back the short distance to Swansea for a tour of 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Dylan Thomas’s birthplace. It’s a fitting finish: Swansea is on the shortlist for UK City of Culture 2021. So best go now, before everyone’s shouting about Mumbles.
• Accommodation was provided by Langland Cove (doubles from £85 B&B, 01792 366003, langlandcove.co.uk). The whole house, which sleeps eight, is also available as a self-catering holiday let. More information at visitswanseabay.com
Ask a local
Arwen Banning, artist and owner of Gower Gallery, Mumbles
• Do
Marine biologist Judith Oakley runs free seashore safaris on various Gower beaches throughout the summer. She can identify pretty much any bit of shell, seaweed or rock.
• Eat
I like Shiraz on Mumbles Road in Swansea, a very friendly Persian and Lebanese restaurant. Its dandah – charcoal-grilled lamb chops – are particularly good.
• Drink
In Dunns Lane, self-styled micro-pub Mumbles Ale House has plenty of guest real ales. It’s popular with local artists, film-makers and politicians, and holds poetry nights.
