The Causeway to Mumbles Lighthouse and Fort

The Causeway to Mumbles Lighthouse and Fort

A postwar view, from The Mumblles Lighthouse Island, to the Pier, which reveals a glimpse of the causeway, as well as the lines of barbed wire defences surrouning the island. .

In 1940 a narrow concrete causeway, exposed at low tide, was constructed across the inner and outer sounds to connect the mainland to the lighthouse island. 

A narrow concrete causeway was constructed in 1940
Today, only remnants of the causway remain

The causeway to Mumbles Lighthouse Island was built so as to enable supplies to be taken to the Lighthouse Island during The Second World War and was blown up in the 1970s, due to its effect on the tides in Swansea Bay. Today some remnants can still be located, at each end of the causeway as well as alongside the Middle Island. The island was very crowded with buildings and the local Territorial Army demolished most of the structures on the lighthouse Island in 1964 & 5. The ruined Keepers Cottage is one of the few structures to survive clearance.

The causeway made it easier to travel to the Lighthouse

The Lighthouse and causeway, 1950s

Mumbles Hill ends in two islands separated by narrow sounds from the mainland. On the outer island (Mumbles Head) at the entrance to Swansea Bay are the Mumbles lighthouse built in 1793 and a fort erected in 1860 to protect against any French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. 

Mumbles Lighthouse and Fort

Searchlight Emplacements

Mumbles Lighthouse and Fort, as well as one of the two searchlight emplacements on the Island. 

Engine House to power the searchlights 
Inside the Engine House 

Mumbles Head Gun-sites and Port War Signal Station

The Defence sites shown on a Google map, 2016

New Information Boards on the site of the Gun Battery on Mumbles Hill

More- The GUNS OF MUMBLES HEAD Collection of articles

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century defences on Mumbles Head

In the Defence of Mumbles and Swansea before 1918 by Carol Powell

(The Swansea History Journal, 2011-12

Walks, Views & History

Map of Mumbles Hill >  

With the situation of the Second World War Remains,
parking, seating and footpaths


This link takes you away from this site

This Google map shows the gun emplacements, control bunker, footpaths, viewpoint, access points and car park, including disabled, which can be found on Thistleboon Drive, Mumbles and Bracelet Bay today.