Volume Nine - Pre-Victorian to the present day - even more aspects - Cefn-y-Wrâch . . .

A section of a 1940's Admiralty chart showing the location of the Cefn-y-Wrâch shoal in relation to the entrance of Penarth Dock, Penarth Head and the Penarth Flats otherwise the West Mud.

During research at the Glamorgan Archives, and with the assistance of their helpful staff, I came across a series of photographs taken during March 1884 of vessels lying off Penarth and Cardiff Docks at Cefn-y-Wrâch. The feature is a 'triangular shaped shoal or bank of boulders and mud formed by the meeting of the rivers Taff and Ely,' as described by Edgar Chappell in his excellent book 'History of the Port of Cardiff'. [614] A literal translation of Cefn-y-Wrâch is apparently the Witches' Back. Another states : 'CEFN-Y-WRACH ("the Hag's Back") A reef off Penarth Head (1873)'. [232] My favourite version is that it was it named after the sighting of a 'hump-back mermaid'! Somewhat sadly, however, a newspaper article of 1878 authoritatively undermines all these myths. The article is heavy reading but I have included it later within this chapter.

Cefn-y-Wrâch - We commence our tour of this notorious shoal or mud-bank with two aerial photographs of the locality.