New trail launched on Tawe Trails history app

The latest addition — an audio‑only Tawe navigation trail — has been created for passengers on the popular Copper Jack River Cruise, offering a guided journey up and down the River Tawe packed with stories from the city’s industrial past.

It joins six other trails already available, covering Hafod Morfa Copperworks, White Rock, Parc Llewelyn, Swansea Canal at Clydach, Morriston Park and the wider Lower Swansea Valley.

The app, developed by Swansea Council’s regeneration team and funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, features interactive maps, waypoint pins, high‑quality images, satellite and street views, selfie postcard frames, accessibility settings and offline functionality. Content is available in English and Welsh, including audio narration.

Council cabinet member Robert Francis‑Davies said it was encouraging to see more than 700 downloads so far, with that figure expected to rise over the school holidays.

“The Lower Swansea Valley was at the heart of the copper industry that helped spread Swansea’s name across the world,” he said. “Thanks to the app, people will learn that Swansea’s story is Britain’s story — and we’re sharing it in the most modern way.”

The newest trail also includes accessibility and safety advice, along with background on historic sites such as Lougher Castle, Oxwich Castle, Weobley Castle and Pennard Castle.

The Tawe Trails app is free to download from the iTunes Store and Google Play.

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Community volunteers fish out Tawe waste to support river sailings

The items were removed from a section of the river close to the Bascule Bridge as they were causing an obstruction to the Copper Jack vessel when it turns around on its trips from Swansea Marina.

Thousands of residents enjoy River Tawe cruises on the Copper Jack every year. 

These include school trips, free and subsidised trips for registered charities, live music trips, scout groups, sailings for the public, private charters and the cuppa and a chat sailings funded by Swansea Council through its ageing well initiative and the UK Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Swansea Community Boat Trust volunteers carried out the waste removal work with support from the Swansea Maritime Volunteer Service.

Other items removed from the riverbed included fencing and a traffic cone.

Mark Whalley, Swansea Community Boat Trust chairman, said:

“One of the problems we are faced with when sailing the Copper Jack on the Tawe is the increasing amount of discarded waste on the riverbed – everything from submerged trees that have come downstream to cars, fencing, bikes and shopping trollies.

“This means the vessel has had difficulty turning at our winding point just downstream of the Bascule Bridge, so with the permission of Natural Resources Wales we recently spent four hours on the water to fish out some of the objects that were causing an obstruction.

“We’ll look to do this again when the weather is a little warmer and we’ll have a clearer view of the riverbed.

“We’d like to thank the Swansea Maritime Volunteer Service for their support and to convey our gratitude to Swansea Council, who organised an area at the Hafod Morfa Copperworks site for the items we fished out to be temporarily stored prior to their responsible disposal.”

Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Investment and Tourism, said:

“The Copper Jack sailings are very popular, so we’re pleased to have been able to support the Swansea Community Boat Trust with their work to remove obstacles from the riverbed.

“We’re committed to doing all we can to help bring the River Tawe more back into use, which is why a pontoon will soon be operational close to the Hafod Morfa Copperworks site to encourage even more river trips in future.”

Head to www.scbt.org.uk for more information about the Copper Jack and its sailings.

#CopperJack #RiverTawe #SwanseaCommunityBoatTrust