Worm’s Head: check the tide first

Worm’s Head is a tidal island at the end of Rhossili, on National Trust land. You walk onto it across a rocky causeway. That path exists only for a window around low tide. Start at the wrong hour and you wait, or you get cut off.

The window

The National Trust says you can cross for about two and a half hours either side of low tide. The coastwatch lookout and the National Trust point at the car park post the times. Use those, plus a tide table for this coast. A photograph from last summer is not a tide.

If you miss the window, you do not wade back. You wait for the next one. That can mean hours on the island. Take the crossing time seriously even if the walk from the car park looked easy.

It is not a castle ticket

Worm’s Head is not Cadw. A Cadw membership does not change the tide, and it does not open a gate here. The walk is on National Trust land at Rhossili, reached from the coast path. See Cadw vs National Trust if you are holding the wrong pass for a different site.

The nearest town door on this site is the Swansea guide. Rhossili is on Gower, not in the city centre. Allow the drive, then the walk from the car park to the causeway. Those are two distances. Only the second one is controlled by the tide.

Parking

Read the National Trust board that day for the car park tariff. Do not use an old blog price. The car park charge is not a Worm’s Head ticket. Members’ parking rules are on the board and on the Trust’s page — check them rather than assuming.

Before you go

Look at the posted crossing times when you arrive, not only at breakfast. Wear shoes that cope with wet rock. If the lookout says the causeway is closed, it is closed. The headland view from the mainland side does not need a crossing.

Do not treat it as a beach hour

The walk from the National Trust car park to the causeway already takes time. If you arrive at low tide and then stop for lunch, the window can close while you are still on the mainland path. Check the posted times at the car park, then decide whether you have the outward walk, the time on the Head, and the walk back inside that window.

If the sea is already on the rocks, stay on the mainland. The coast path along the cliff gives the view without the crossing. A Cadw day, a pub lunch, and “a quick walk out” do not fit in two and a half hours either side of low water.

Tide tables for a different beach on Gower are not this causeway. Use the times posted for Worm’s Head.