The Gower Peninsula is a richly varied natural environment of heath, grassland, fresh and saltwater marsh, dunes and oak woodland, is designated an area of natural beauty.

Among the many fine natural habitats are the mud-flats and salt-marsh of the Burry Inlet (part of the candidate Special Area of Conservation for Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries, Special Protection Area and Ramsar site) and the flora-rich limestone grasslands.

There are 101 listed buildings in the AONB, including four Grade I buildings.

Gower has been settled since prehistoric times and has a high concentration of ancient sites. The western end of the Peninsula is listed in the Register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic Interest in Wales for its Neolithic and Bronze Age features and its surviving medieval open field system. Almost all the coast is in the protective ownership of either the City and Council of Swansea, the National Trust, the Countryside Council for Wales or the Glamorgan Wildlife Trust.

The Gower has been settled on since prehistoric times and has a high concentration of ancient sites. The western end of the Peninsula is listed in the Register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic Interest in Wales for its Neolithic and Bronze Age features and its surviving medieval open field system. Almost all the coast is in the protective ownership of either the City and Council of Swansea, the National Trust, the Countryside Council for Wales or the Glamorgan Wildlife Trust.

The public rights of way network is extensive covering 431 km (268 miles) on Gower and is heavily used by both visitors and local people as it offers a wide variety of experiences reflecting the diversity of the Peninsula.

There are a number of specially designated areas on the Gower, these are;

• 25 Sites of Special Scientific Interest

• 5 Candidate Special Areas of Conservation

• 3 National Nature Reserves

• 1 Special Protection Area

• 1 Ramsar Site

• 3 Local Nature Reserves

• 23 Wildlife Trust Reserves

• 67 Ancient Woodland Sites

• 1 Coed Cadw Reserves

Arthur's Stone, sometimes known as King Arthur's Stone or Maen Ceti, is a Neolithic burial tomb dating back to 2500 B.C. and was one of the first sites to be protected under the Ancient Monuments Act of 1882.

Perched upon a set of pointed supporting stones, the capstone is a 25 ton quartz conglomerate boulder, measuring an almighty 4 metres by 2 metres and 2 metres depth. However, previous to 1693 the boulder was much larger than this, until an incident knocking more than 10 tons of it to the ground in a clean break. Nobody is sure how this almighty event took place, but many theories exist. Some say that a miller attempted to remove a chunk of the rock to make a new millstone, but that the piece proved too heavy to move. Others suggest it was struck by lightening during a violent storm or that St. David, the Patron Saint of Wales, himself split the stone with his mighty sword in defiance of the Druid worship centred around it. Whatever the cause the broken part can still be found alongside the monument, demoted to the ground.