Dylan Thomas's Welsh wonder beach is voted the best in Britain

Daily Mail: June 2010.
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Rhossili Bay in South Wales saw off competition from some of the UK's best-known holiday resorts and took 47% of the vote in a survey, emerging as the clear winner ahead of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly A remote coastal stretch once described by Dylan Thomas as 'wild, bleak and barren' was yesterday voted Britain's best beach. Rhossili Bay on the western tip of the Gower Peninsular in south Wales offers captivating views across the Bristol Channel and Carmarthen Bay.

The three-mile stretch of beach near Swansea won 47 per cent of the votes, with Tresco in the Isles of Scilly coming second with 19 per cent. Two of Britain's more famous beaches, Blackpool and Margate, each won 10 per cent of the votes while Lepe in Hampshire (2 per cent) and Bamburgh in Northumberland (1 per cent) made up the top six.

Last month, Rhossili Bay was also voted the best picnic spot by a team of travel writers.The poll was conducted for the Cadbury Flake 99 Great British Beach Awards 2010. David Taylor, of Fredericks Dairies, which makes ice cream for Cadbury, said: 'It's fantastic to see the great British public getting behind the campaign with over 7,700 votes cast.
'It just goes to show how treasured our beaches are.' Councillor Richard Lewis, Lord Mayor of Swansea, said: 'The views at Rhossili are among the best in the world and this award is the latest in a long line of accolades for the beauty spot.'  Rhossili Bay was the scene of Thomas's camping trip in his story Extraordinary Little Cough.

He described it was 'the wildest, bleakest and barrennest I know — four or five miles of yellow coldness going away into the distance of the sea'.