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In this series of Essays writer Jon Gower explores the patches of sea water around Wales, sailing past Viking slave traders, soft crumbling coastlines, industrial scale smuggling, marathon chess matches between lighthouse keepers, ghost ships, whales and walruses along the way. For the country of Wales, surrounded on three sides by the sea, that sea has always been important – a trade route, a means to export ideas such as Christianity, or as a source of fish - especially herring, so many herring.

Out to Open Water - To the west of the Welsh landmass laps the Irish Sea, shaping its shores and connecting us with that place called elsewhere. It's been both a barrier and a conduit, at times separating and at other times connecting. The Irish Sea is nowadays synonymous with a hard border, but for centuries this Celtic lake has been its porous opposite. It's been a channel for the exchange of ideas, and a saintly superhighway: a place where history's tides so often change direction.

Produced by Megan Jones and Philippa Swallow.