Salt marsh lamb, community veg boxes and cockles, five verified places on Gower and in Swansea
The farm shops in West Glamorgan are almost all on Gower, the peninsula that became the UK’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956. The five worth knowing are Gower Salt Marsh Lamb at Weobley Castle Farm, Llanrhidian; Murton Farm Shop near Bishopston; Cae Tan, a community supported veg box farm; Gower Meadow Beef at Penmaen; and Swansea Market for Penclawdd cockles and laverbread. I could not verify a trading farm shop in Neath Port Talbot.
Under my post about the biggest strawberry farm supplying UK supermarkets, one of you wrote:
Thank you for sharing this. This is awful. I expect the supermarkets to take some responsibility and not buy from suppliers that abuse their workers. Off to the local farmers market I go
A reader in my comments
Off you go, then. On Gower that is easy, and you can see the fields from the shop.
What you cannot see in a supermarket is who picked it and what they were paid. At a farm counter, or in a community scheme like Cae Tan, you can ask the person who grew it.
Which Gower farm shop should you choose?
On the north coast, Gower Salt Marsh Lamb at Weobley Castle Farm sells lamb raised on the salt marsh, which has protected status. It does not publish shop hours, so ring before you go. On the south side, Murton Farm Shop near Bishopston opens on Fridays and Saturdays for vegetables and honey.
Cae Tan is not a shop. It is a community supported farm: you sign up for a share and collect your box each week from Gower Heritage Centre at Parkmill. Gower Meadow Beef at Penmaen sells grass fed beef by order and collection. And Swansea Market, the largest indoor market in Wales, is where to find Penclawdd cockles and laverbread from the north Gower shore.
- Gower Salt Marsh Lamb, Protected salt marsh lamb from the farm shop at Weobley Castle
- Murton Farm Shop, Friday and Saturday farm shop for vegetables and honey near Bishopston
- Cae Tan CSA, Community supported organic veg boxes grown at Furzehill
- Gower Meadow Beef, Grass fed Welsh Black and Dexter beef from the Douglas family farm
- Swansea Market, Penclawdd cockles, laverbread and Gower lamb in the largest indoor market in Wales
Gower Salt Marsh Lamb
Map and location
Weobley Castle Farm, Llanrhidian, Gower, Swansea SA3 1HB. View Gower Salt Marsh Lamb on the map.
Contact: 01792 390012.
Salt marsh lamb from the Burry Estuary since 2004
Gower Salt Marsh Lamb is run from Weobley Castle Farm at Llanrhidian, on the north coast of the peninsula. Rowland and Colin started the business and began selling their lamb under the Gower Salt Marsh Lamb name in 2004. Their sheep graze about 4,000 acres of tidal salt marsh within the Burry Estuary, eating grasses, samphire, sorrel, sea lavender and thrift. In August 2021 the lamb became the first product to gain Protected Designation of Origin status under the new UK scheme, and the company also holds Great Taste Gold awards from 2009 and 2012.
The farm shop at Weobley Castle keeps a range of cuts of the farm’s own lamb, and staff will advise on cuts and cooking. The website also sells salt marsh mutton and hogget, honey and other accompaniments, and a Christmas hamper. Samphire is sold from the farm shop when it is in season. If you can’t get to Llanrhidian, there is an online shop with UK courier delivery, free on orders over £175, and a subscription box service.
Visiting and buying
The website does not publish farm shop opening hours, so ring before you go. The farm is near Llanrhidian on the north Gower road, on the marsh side of the peninsula rather than the beach side. Lamb can be collected from the farm shop by prior arrangement, which suits a half or whole lamb box. Salt marsh lamb is seasonal, so ask whether you are buying lamb, hogget or mutton that week and when the samphire will be ready.
Gower Salt Marsh Lamb: website and opening hours.
Murton Farm Shop
Map and location
34 Manselfield Road, Murton, Swansea SA3 3AR. View Murton Farm Shop on the map.
Contact: 01792 232732.
Vegetables and honey two days a week in Murton
Murton Farm Shop is on Murton Farm, in the village of Murton near Bishopston in south Gower. The farm also lets three holiday cottages, a few minutes’ drive from Caswell beach. The shop’s own listing describes its stock as fresh vegetables, local produce and honey, but it does not say how much of that is grown on the farm. It holds a food hygiene rating of 5, from an inspection in August 2022.
This is a small village farm shop rather than a large destination shop, and no café or butchery is listed. The range changes with the season: bedding plants are sold in spring, and the farm runs a grotto in the weeks before Christmas. The listing names Mrs Evans as the person to contact for more information.
Visiting and buying
The farm’s website gives opening hours of Fridays and Saturdays, 8am to 5pm. Murton is beside Bishopston at the Swansea end of the peninsula, and the listing says there is plenty of parking. There is also a mobile number, 07880 896323, if the landline isn’t answered. Ask which vegetables were grown on Murton Farm and which are bought in from other local growers.
Murton Farm Shop: website and opening hours.
Cae Tan CSA
Map and location
Collection point: Gower Heritage Centre, Parkmill, Gower, Swansea SA3 2EH. The growing fields are at Furzehill, near Lunnon. View Cae Tan CSA on the map.
Community supported veg from the fields at Furzehill
Cae Tan is a community supported agriculture scheme on Gower, where members share the risks and rewards of the growing season with the growers. It started on about 15 acres of damp, underused sheep grazing land, and by 2015 its vegetable scheme was supplying 50 households. A Business Wales case study later put the figure at about 130 households each week, all year round, with organic produce grown without chemicals. Its main fields are at Furzehill near Lunnon, and the scheme has run a campaign to bring them into community ownership.
The veg boxes come in two sizes, listed on the FarmCo ordering site at £14.70 for a small box and £22.58 for a large organic box. Both were showing as sold out when checked, so expect to wait for a place. Beyond the boxes, Cae Tan runs volunteering days, learning sessions and school visits. There is no shop counter at the fields; boxes are picked up from a collection point.
Visiting and buying
Orders go through FarmCo and close at midnight on Tuesday, for collection from Gower Heritage Centre at Parkmill on Thursday between 5pm and 6.30pm. Boxes wait in the fridge in the pick up shed next to Little Valley Bakery from 4.30pm on Thursday until midday on Sunday. Parkmill is on the A4118 south Gower road, west of Swansea. Ask the growers which crops in the box came from Furzehill that week and whether anything has been bought in to fill it out.
Cae Tan CSA: website and opening hours.
Gower Meadow Beef
Map and location
Penmaen, Gower, Swansea. The farm does not publish a full address or postcode; its Friday collection point is listed as Long Oaks Farm, Penmaen. View Gower Meadow Beef on the map.
Contact: 07811 187087.
Grass fed Welsh Black and Dexter beef from Penmaen
Gower Meadow Beef is the Douglas family’s small farm at Penmaen, in south Gower. They keep a mixed herd of Welsh Black and Dexter cattle, raised entirely on grass. The cattle graze the farm’s own wildflower meadows and nature reserves nearby, including the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales reserve at Overton Mere and the fens at Oxwich Bay managed by Natural Resources Wales. The FarmCo listing describes the beef as Pasture for Life certified.
The beef is aged for 21 days and sold as mince, steak mince, sirloin, rump and ribeye steaks, burgers, laverbread burgers, brisket, silverside, topside, rolled chuck, shin and bones. All of it is sold frozen, though the farm can arrange for unfrozen beef to be collected from the butcher. FarmCo’s shop at Kingsbridge, Gorseinon also stocks it alongside other local products.
Visiting and buying
There is no farm shop with regular opening hours, so buying works by order. FarmCo lists collection from Gower Heritage Centre, Parkmill, on Thursdays from 5pm to 6.30pm, or from At The Farm at Long Oaks Farm, Penmaen, on Fridays from 7am to 7pm, with orders closing at midnight on Tuesday. The farm’s own site also mentions a Tuesday evening collection at Bluebell Coffee & Kitchen in Sketty, so check the options shown when you order. For bulk orders or particular cuts, the website asks you to contact Emma by text or WhatsApp; ask which animals and which grazing site your beef came from.
Gower Meadow Beef: website and opening hours.
Swansea Market
Map and location
Oxford Street, Swansea SA1 3PQ. View Swansea Market on the map.
Penclawdd cockles and laverbread under one roof since 1961
Swansea Market is the largest indoor market in Wales. A covered market was first held in Swansea in 1652, in a building near the castle. The red brick market that opened in 1897 lost its roof and interior in the Luftwaffe raids of 1941. The present building, designed by Percy Thomas with a steel and glass arched roof, opened in 1961.
This is not a farm shop: the stalls are run by a mix of traders, and only some of them are producers. What makes it worth the trip for local food is the Gower and Welsh produce on sale, including Penclawdd cockles, laverbread, Gower salt marsh lamb and Welsh Black beef. The cockles come from the beds off Penclawdd on the north Gower coast. It is the easiest place in the area to buy several local foods in one stop.
Visiting and buying
Visit Swansea Bay gives opening hours of Monday to Saturday, 8am to 5pm. The market is in the city centre, with an entrance on Oxford Street, and it is closed on Sundays. Stalls and stock vary from day to day, so go early in the day if you want something particular. Ask each stallholder where their cockles were gathered and which farm their lamb or beef came from, since not everything on sale is from Gower.
Swansea Market: website and opening hours.
What is Gower salt marsh lamb?
It is lamb from sheep that graze the salt marshes on Gower’s north coast, where the grass is washed by the tide, and it carries protected status for the name. That is the receipt: a protected name means a defined place and method, not a marketing line.
As a plant based household, I will not pretend it is for me. But if you eat meat, buying a protected, traceable product from the farm that raised it is a world apart from a shrink wrapped tray of imported lamb. Ask the farm about the flock and the marsh. Then decide.
Why a farm you can reach is part of being ready
The UK Government’s Be Ready campaign asks every household to manage for three days if services are disrupted. On a peninsula with one main road in, that is not theory.
A weekly Cae Tan share and a farm you know by name are part of the plan. Read The Be Ready Campaign: a UK guide to stocking your home with healthy, local food, and our emergency preparedness guide.
Plan your visit, what to buy and how much
Choose one or two stops that fit your route. Write down what you want, how much you need and what you will cook with it when you get home. If one crop is not in, change the meal, not the plan.
- Confirm opening days and any booking for the café or events.
- Ask what was grown or reared on the farm, and what was bought in.
- Check payment methods, and bring your own bags and boxes.
- Ask about parking and the right entrance for visitors.
Plan your farm shopping with My Shopping List and Harvest Checker
Open My Shopping List to record produce, quantities and estimated costs. Mark items as bought when you collect them and keep the plan for your next trip.
Use Harvest Checker once a grower gives you a picking window. Enter those dates and compare them with your visit. The tool uses your entries; it does not fetch live availability from farms.
My Shopping List
Keep the produce you actually need in one place before you set off.
Use My Shopping ListHarvest Checker
Compare your visit with dates confirmed by the grower. This does not check live stock.
Use Harvest CheckerUse the tools with your My Ideal World account. Guest and free-account limits apply; paid members have unlimited tool access.
Further along the coast, see the farm shops in Dyfed, Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan, inland in Powys, or browse every region on the Be Ready Map. Also new in the Be Ready Map: the guides to Bristol.
Sources
- Gower Salt Marsh Lamb, home page and shop
- Gower Salt Marsh Lamb, about us
- Defra, Gower salt marsh lamb first new protected food under UK GI schemes
- Murton Farm Shop, Gower Holiday Cottages farm shop page
- Murton Farm Shop, Gower Holiday Cottages home page
- Murton Farm Shop, Gower Holidays listing
- Murton Farm Shop, Eatible hygiene rating and address
- Cae Tan CSA, FarmCo producer page
- Cae Tan CSA, Community Supported Agriculture Network article (2015)
- Cae Tan CSA, Business Wales case study (seen via search only)
- Gower Heritage Centre, shops at the centre
- Gower Meadow Beef, about us
- Gower Meadow Beef, buy our beef
- Gower Meadow Beef, FarmCo producer page
- FarmCo Market, home page
- Swansea Market, Wikipedia
- Visit Swansea Bay, local produce markets
- Gower Peninsula, Wikipedia
- West Glamorgan, Wikipedia
- Be Ready , UK Government emergency preparedness campaign
Research reviewed 28 October 2026. Farm websites, council listings and official sources support the descriptions above. No firsthand visit, current stock check or certification is claimed.
Gower feeds people the way land should: from the marsh, the shore and the field, sold by the people who work them. Neath Port Talbot deserves the same, and I could not find it. If you know a farm shop there, tell me in the comments.