Cefn Sidan

Cefn Sidan is a long sandy beach with dunes on the Carmarthen Bay coast in South Wales. It lies between Burry Port and Kidwelly, facing southwest across eight miles of fine sand. The beach is backed by windblown dunes, salt marshes, Pembrey Forest and the Pembrey Country Park. Ten approach routes lead from inland roads to the shore. Life guards patrol the beach in summer and notices give visitors safety information. The sands have claimed many ships over the centuries. In 1828 the French vessel La Jeune Emma was wrecked here after being blown off course. Thirteen of the nineteen people on board drowned, including Adeline Coquelin, the twelve-year-old niece of Josephine de Beauharnais. The four-masted windjammer SV Paul was the last large ship lost in 1925. Today the beach forms part of the Pembrey Country Park leisure and nature complex. Visitors find wide sandy shores backed by dunes and salt marshes. The fine sand is good for walking but too loose for deep tunnels. In 2008 a boy was trapped when a sand tunnel collapsed and later died in hospital. The beach is also used by naturists, though the council does not encourage this. From the dunes there are views across Carmarthen Bay to Tywyn Point at the estuary mouth.