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Southerndown

A scenic view of the beach by Welsh Lady on Flickr.

Surrounded by high cliffs, Southerndown or Dunraven Bay is predominantly a beach break with a reef to the north of the bay.

This beach is one of the jewels in the crown of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, and as a result can become very crowded in summer. The best time of year to surf it though is in winter, when you'll find it relatively quiet.

The scenery here is awe inspiring with steep 'liassic lime-stone', sandwiched between the shale, making them spectacular to look at but very brittle and dangerous - so climbers beware.

Most of the rocky outcrops around the high tide mark are of carboniferous limestone and packed full of fossils which date from around 335 million years ago.

The beach is fairly wide but the area for surfing narrows considerably as the tide approaches high water so care must be taken when entering and exiting the water.

The right hand reef breaking at Southerndown

Image by 'Spen45'

There's a nasty shore dump when the surf and tides are large, so make sure you have plenty of time to exit the sea or wait for the tide to recede a little.

The football sized boulders that line the shore, turn the normally placid pebble bank into the 'travelator' from ITV's 'Gladiators' which isn't much fun and will leave a lasting impression on your surfboard.

From mid time up, the best entry spot to paddle out from is via a concrete slipway, which leads down to the waters edge. Be warned though - waves can and do break over this, so the stage of the tide dictates where you can enter the water from.

You can park up opposite the beach but will have to pay for the privilege. If you don't want to pay then you can park at the top of the hill and walk down but it's a bit of a trek.

There are toilets and a lifeguard station on site but the latter is only manned during the summer months.

There are some lovely walks to be had here up and over the headland towards Monknash and Nash Point with amazing views over the Bristol Channel towards North Devon.

Article written by Martin Aaron