Location: Machynys

Machynys Farm [Courtesy Trostre Museum]

FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS sailing vessels used the shipping places of the Burry Estuary, many sheltered from the gales during bad weather and some foundered on the sand and mud banks trying to ride out the storms.

Many vessels were blown into the estuary by the gale force winds and others were drawn on to the sand and mud banks by the wreckers. Wrecking was prevalent along the coast of the Burry Estuary in the 18th and 19th centuries and there is said to be evidence of wrecking at Machynys.

Local traditions indicates that in the latter part of the 19th century a servant girl was given a lantern and sent to the top of a cliff at Machynys so that a ship could be drawn on to the rocks below. Whilst the servant girl did what she was told to do she accidentally set some gorse bushes alight. When the crew of the vessel saw the flames they realised something was amiss and they were able to steer a course away from the rocks. A short while after the incident the poor servant girl was found dead and her throat had been cut.

Tradition suggests that the apparition that haunted the spot where the gorse caught fire was the ghost of the poor murdered servant girl.

This story is courtesy of Llanelli, Birth of a Town, By William & Benita Rees. http://llanelli-history.co.uk/index.htm