Burry Port is a small place in West Wales; the name refers both to the port itself (pictured) and the town behind it. It is located on a particularly treacherous bay that branches off the Bristol Channel around the north side of the Gower Peninsula and consequently offered much in the way of opportunities for both clearing up wrecked ships and deliberately increasing the workload for the salvage merchants. At the time the main area of residence was a few hundred yards around a hill at Pembrey; the main administrative centres were Llanelli to the east and Kidwelly, with its forbidding castle, to the west.

Long after Kidwelly's castle had fallen into decay both salvage and agriculture were displaced by the coming of the Industrial Revolution, which brought a canal from the Gwendraeth Valley and thereby coal searching for a means to be exported. The result was the port. The canal was subsequently upgraded to a not very generously proportioned railway.

In 1928 Burry Port was the landing place for the end of the first flight by a woman across the Atlantic. The port is now a marina for small boats and a nearby airfield handles the few visiting aircraft. The Gwendraeth Valley line has gone, along with the collieries, leaving the mainline to Carmarthen, a trunk road and the South Wales Coast Path offering views along the vast sandy beach.

The ruins of the castle at Kidwelly attract a few visitors too.