Am dan y warchodfa

This glistening landscape of rippling pools, marshy islands and mudflats stretches far out across the Severn Estuary. This tidal habitat is a difficult place to live but is perfect for specialist coastal plants, like sea aster, marsh mallow and sea milkwort.

It is the thick mud, teeming with invertebrates, which makes this place such a haven for wildlife, particularly the thousands of wading birds that use it as an important stopover to feed and rest during migration. Dunlins, turnstones and redshanks feast on the mud-dwelling creatures in spring and autumn. The haunting calls of curlews and the piping of oystercatchers fill the air and they are joined in the winter by ducks like teal, wigeon and shelducks.

What we do here
Gwent Wildlife Trust owns the fishing rights to approximately 2 km² of the foreshore. We have an agreement with the Wentlooge Wildfowling and Conservation Association to have a no shoot zone at the mouth of the Peterstone Gout.

Directions
By car
Travelling west, leave the M4 at Junction 28 and at the roundabout exit onto the A48 towards Newport. At the next roundabout, take the 3rd exit, signposted ‘St Brides/Duffryn’. At the mini roundabout, take the 1^st exit to continue along the B4239 to St Brides. Continue on for approximately 1.5 km after passing Peterstone Lakes Golf Club, following the road as it veers to the left and then the right. Park across the road from the church.

To reach the reserve, walk along the path by the church signposted ‘Sea wall’.

Near the reserve
Gwent Wildlife Trust’s Great Traston Meadows, Allt-yr-Yn and Dan-y-Graig reserves are nearby. The Newport Wetlands National Nature Reserve lies to the south-east of Newport and is an outstanding site for birdwatching.

You can get refreshments at the Six Bells Hotel in Peterstone Wentloodge.