It’s a beautiful but notorious beach where cars are regularly dragged out of the sea having become partly or completely submerged. Over the last 40 years. local farmer Dafydd Davies says he has repeatedly taken his John Deere tractor to rescue vehicles from the notorious Traeth y Graig Ddu (Black Rock Sands) in Gwynedd in north-west Wales.

And his commitment to saving stranded vehicles dates back to his own traumatic event four decades earlier. In 1980, while working on a new silage pit at his Tremadog farm, he suffered a severe accident with a JCB bucket loader that left him pinned against a concrete septic tank.

“I lost my eye but I was very lucky I didn’t lose my life,” he told North Wales Live. The ordeal heightened his awareness of dangers and spurred a desire to contribute to the community, including offering his land for air ambulance landings.

“That incident made me much more aware of risks – even now I can sense accidents about to happen. It also made me want to give something back to the community – I volunteered my land for air ambulance landings.”

This sense of duty also prompted him nearly a decade ago to take on the role of beach guardian the beach near Porthmadog, one of the rare beaches on which driving is permitted. Pulling cars from the encroaching tide or freeing them from soft dune sands has long been a task for local farmers and when the previous guardian retired Dafydd eagerly stepped forward.

Car and motorhome owners sometimes act quickly enough that their vehicles can be salvaged. But sometimes, all Dafydd can do is retrieve them to prevent an environmental hazard.

Occasionally, his wife Kathryn, a former nurse, bears the brunt of such incidents, like when a pink VW campervan was engulfed in 2020. The van and its transporter, brought to the beach for a 1970s-themed photoshoot, were swallowed by a rapidly rising tide when they got stuck in the sand.

“I always remember the date – September 14 – as it’s my wife’s birthday,” Dafydd reminisced. “I’d booked a meal at a restaurant but my mobile rang and we had to go to the beach instead. I usually get there in 18 minutes but by the time we arrived, it was too late – the tide was coming in too fast. Instead, I drove the tractor to the restaurant, had a meal, then I went back to the beach. It was around 2am when I finally got home.”

The distraught owner, from Cheshire, estimated losses at £60,000.

In a typical summer, around six to 10 vehicles come to grief on the Gwynedd beach. But it is thought up to 30 cars and motorhomes were rescued last year in 2025, because the beach is extremely popular and one of the few where drivers can take their cars and motorhomes on the sand.

Locals are well-versed in the unpredictable nature of a beach whose inviting shallow waters are perfect for swimming and water sports, yet pose a hidden threat to unwary motorists. The very feature that makes the beach ideal for leisure activities – its gentle slope – also presents a danger by enabling tides to surge in swiftly.

Although there are numerous warnings on the beach about the potential perils, they can’t be placed where people tend to park at low tide near the water. Visitors who pay for parking receive a leaflet detailing tide times and beach safety tips, including advice on parking and even information on weeverfish.

“But it’s human nature, they don’t read the leaflets or look at the signs, and they park where they want. If the tide is high in the morning, all the cars park higher up the beach and, if the sand is dry and soft, that’s when people need pulling from the dunes,” said Dafydd.

The situation worsens when the tide is out, and the firmer sand encourages drivers to venture further, only to be caught off guard by the incoming sea. “However when the tide is out and the sand is harder, that’s when people park further out. Before they know it, the sea is coming in.”

On hot weekends, you might find 1,000 vehicles or more on the beach, causing traffic to back up for over half a mile into Morfa Bychan village and effectively turning the beach into an enormous makeshift car park.

Last year, the council started closing the beach gate at 8pm, which in theory meant fewer rescues later in the evening but didn’t always go according to plan.

Last June, Dafydd was about to head to a wedding party: “We were dressed and just about to go out the door to a wedding party. I drove to the beach while my wife went to the party alone. A family from Birmingham were stuck on the beach. As they reported it quickly, I was able to save their car – they were very grateful – and I made it to the party by 9pm. Only once the clock ticks past 8pm during the summer can I finally relax.”

And recent years have brought a fresh challenge to Dafydd’s coastal rescue operation: the rising number of electric vehicles (EVs) presents a considerably tougher task than retrieving traditional petrol cars.

“Electric vehicles are so much heavier because of their batteries,” he explained. “You take a basic Honda EV – it weights 2.2 tonnes. Not only do they sink further into the sand, it requires more power and traction to pull them out.”

However, like many farmers, Dafydd believes he has an obligation to assist his local community. Some help clear snow from roads, whilst others rescue motorists trapped by floods. 

“I enjoy it,” said Dafydd. “I like the idea of giving something back. My son, Owain, who works with me on the farm, has done a couple of beach jobs, which means I can now get away for a day if I need to. But not for too long – helping others gives me great satisfaction.”