Gower's Strangest Treasure Hunt 🗺️

Good morning, Swansea!

From smugglers' hideouts to past-life memories, Gower has always attracted treasure hunters with tales that sound too strange to be true. But sometimes the most unlikely stories have the most interesting details.

This week, enjoy three treasure tales that have become part of Swansea folklore...

Catch you on Sunday!

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After a hypnosis session in the early 1990s, James W. Bethe of Scottsdale, Arizona became convinced that he'd lived a past life in Wales as a Napoleonic soldier called John Seaman, complete with memories of burying treasure on Gower.

According to his hypnotic memories, Past Life James had hidden a casket full of "gold plates, goblets, jewel-encrusted crosses and strings of pearls" somewhere on the peninsula before dying at the Battle of Waterloo.

"I know it sounds bizarre," Bethe admitted in a letter to the Gower Society, "but the details are too clear to ignore."

What made the story particularly intriguing was that James had somehow sketched a Gower building that no longer existed. Local archaeology officer Bernard Morris actually recognised the structure from old records, which certainly raised eyebrows.

For weeks, Bethe's story captured local imagination, with curious residents keeping an eye out for treasure hunters on the cliffs. While no gold was ever found, the tale of the hypnotised American who believed he'd buried Gower treasure 200 years ago remains one of the area's most memorable treasure hunts.

Walk west from Port Eynon beach and you'll discover one of Gower's most puzzling structures: a cave whose mouth has been sealed with an impressive stone wall, standing as tall as a six-storey building and punctured with dozens of small doors and windows.

Step inside and the walls are honeycombed with square recesses - nesting boxes that suggest this was built as a dovecote in the 13th or 14th century, according to heritage records. The engineering is remarkable: a wall reaching 19 metres high and 3 metres thick at the base, complete with stacked doorways, windows, and the remains of internal stairs.

Officially, Culver Hole (from "culver," Old English for pigeon) was designed to house pigeons for meat and eggs during winter months - an extraordinary example of medieval construction.

But local folklore tells a different story. Tales persist that John Lucas, a notorious smuggler, used Culver Hole as his secret storehouse, complete with a tunnel running down to the Salt House below - "big enough to ride a horse through," according to local stories.

Whether that tunnel ever existed remains unproven, but the location certainly fits the smuggling narrative: steep cliffs providing cover, a hidden chamber for storage, and a secluded inlet where boats could land undetected.

Lastly, some treasure of a different kind. In the shallow waters of Oxwich Bay lies the wreck of the Solor, a Norwegian vessel that met its end in the early 20th century.

The Solor rests in just a few metres of water, making it one of Gower's most popular dive sites - and a rumoured cargo of beer and whisky bottles.

Divers report that one of the ship’s holds contains hundreds of bottles of beer and whisky, still intact. And on clear days visitors can see the outline of the ship's timbers from the surface (pictured above).

Have you heard of any mysterious tales of treasure in Swansea or Gower? Reply and let me know!

Catch you on Sunday!

Andrew.