Morfa Beach / Margam Sands - Added to Beaches and Seaside Resorts in Wales

I have just added this to the map of places to fly your drone at Drone Scene:

Land owner permission not required.

This is a lovely long stretch of beach that is popular with dog walkers, and occasional kite board surfers. But it is usually fairly deserted at start and end of day. There are two shipwrecks depending on tide (and I strongly advise checking otherwise there will be no beach). From my mark, you can go left for one, and right for the other, and I will post a separate location for the HMV Altmark. The attached image shows my drone looking right from the footpath towards the steel works.

There are, as you will have walked through it, a large train yard here. From teh right location you can get good shots of goods wagons, etc…

The point I have marked is where the footpath comes out that you get to by leaving the M4 at Junction 38 and taking an immediate left if heading West. Follow that road all the way down to the train tracks and park up. Then cross the lines, and keep going straight. When the road starts to curve you will see a footpath by a fence and then the beach - approx a mile and 20m good walk.

The beach is also accessible from Kenfig Nature Reserve (see another of my locations) and runs all the way from Nottage to the old docks at Port Talbot - all told, just short of 7 miles of sand.

The originator declared that this location was not inside a Flight Restriction Zone at the time of being flown on 15/06/2020. It remains the responsibility of any pilot to check for any changes before flying at the same location.

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I appear to have created two pins for this - not sure how. Can you delete the one not on the beach please?

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Done.

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I want to fly here @stubbyd, I’ve added it to the list of places I want to fly :blush:

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Attempted this today and the beach seems to be privately owned by Tata. There does seem to be a PROW leading to the beach (though not connected) but there are signs as you enter advising of no access to the beach. After a couple of minutes I decided against flying (a bit too windy anyway) but as soon as I was back on the PROW, a security patrol had turned up. They didn’t speak to me but given there was a security turret right by the entrance to the beach, I assume I may have triggered it.

Looking online does seem to suggest there’s a bit of a years long debate between locals and Tata relating to beach access, with inconsistencies on how Tata have (or have not) policed it over the years, but this is certainly worth considering if you intend to fly here. A shame as the beach was really long and pleasant.

Same thing happened to my last week i couldn’t find a way through so went round the long way, parked up at Kenfig nature reserve and walked along the beach towards the steel works

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I’ve never had an issue accessing this beach from the first parking location. Been going there a couple times a year for the last few, but I guess things change. I know it is quite heavily used by locals walking dogs, and there is a footpath that runs alongside it which locals fought to keep open and “won” a public inquiry in 2013.