The couple couldn’t believe their eyes as they walked at Southerndown’s Dunraven Bay
Rocks fall from a limestone cliff onto the beach at the Glamorgan Heritage Coast(Image: Anthony Preston)
A dog walker has shared his shock at seeing rocks fall from the towering cliffs above during a walk along a popular Welsh beach. Anthony Preston visited Southerndown Beach with his partner Vicky and dog Biffy on Saturday morning at around 11am.
Also known as Dunraven Bay, it is a stunning sandy cove on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, renowned for its dramatic, towering sedimentary limestone cliffs.
The couple from Bridgend say they had joked about the possibility of the subsidence from the cliffs taking place on previous visits and even moments earlier, but couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw it actually happen. Stay informed on Bridgend news by signing up to our newsletter here.
The beach is renowned for its dramatic, towering sedimentary limestone cliffs(Image: John Myers)
Mr Preston explained: “We go down there quite regularly and we’ve often looked up and thought, as there are big cracks all the way along. My other half always points it out and says: ‘That’s going to go soon, that’s going to go soon’.
“There’s one big overhang down there, and we were literally saying ‘it could be any day, it could be years, you never know’. As we were walking along you could hear little bits coming down that would drop occasionally, whether it was the birds disturbing stuff or what, I’m not sure.
“Then there was just a noise. I won’t tell you what we said! I just grabbed my phone quickly and took photos.
“We were shocked. The dog was with us and he was trying to pull off trying to run towards it initially.
“There was quite a bit which came down. The beach wasn’t that busy. It was picking up as we were leaving but we were the only people down there at the time.”
Dunraven is a fantastic place to find fossils with great rock pools to explore, but care must be taken as signs warn visitors not to sit or walk under the cliffs.
The bay was once believed to be an old Iron Age hillfort, which later transformed into Dunraven Castle, which is now long gone.
In its wake, there are ruins of the castle and what was once its walled garden lying in a setback area away from the beach.
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