UKC

Having never been to the Pembrokeshire coastline or area in general, I'd appreciate suggestions of things to see and do in the area?

Sadly there will be no climbing on the agenda. Just holiday touristy stuff please.

In reply to The Lemming:

St David's cathedral
The Blue lagoon at Abereiddy
Ramsey Island, Skomer and Skokholm if you're lucky
Stone Age village near Fishguard
Mathry
Whitesands
The Coast Path

In reply to Tom Valentine:

I shall put them all on my tick list.

Cheers

In reply to The Lemming:

Green Bridge of Wales
Broadhaven (South) beach and lily ponds
Carnedd Llidi on the St Davids peninsula
Porch Clais to St Nons coast path
The biggest dolmen in the U.K.
Texaco is quite impressive for a sunset drive by.
Surfing at Newgale

In reply to The Lemming:

I've heard the coastline is awesome, I'm making a list as well so any suggestions welcome

In reply to The Lemming:

Porthgain
Tregwynt Woolen Mill
The sheepdog demos at Pembrokeshire Sheepdogs

In reply to Tom Valentine:

Barafundle bay.
Tenby.
Boat around St Davids.

In reply to The Lemming:

All of the above, followed by an Angry Dog at The Sloop!! mmmm

http://sloop.co.uk/htmlpages/wintermenu7.html

Chris

In reply to The Lemming: There may be sheep dog trials at this time of year - please go and protest their innocence

In reply to The Lemming:

If you're just looking for holiday/touristy stuff as mentioned, you best bet is somewhere like Tenby as your focal point and the surrounding locations. IE; Saundersfoot etc. Tenby is considered the main 'tourist' location for Pembrokeshire so can get very busy! Especially on a hot day/week like we've had recently.

http://tenby.co.uk/tenby-from-the-sky-drone-footage/

In reply to The Lemming:

Last time we got rained off, we went to Pembroke Castle and really enjoyed it. Spectacular construction, decent exhibitions and a cracking tour (though I should imagine tour quality varies depending on which guide you happen to end up with).

In reply to The Lemming:
If you're after walks then the area around Pwll Deri is stunning, as is the Marloes Peninsula. The wildest part, however is the stretch from Cardigan to Newport - fantastic stuff!

In reply to The Lemming:

To everybody, thank you.

In reply to chestermil:

Yes, if you want busy go to Tenby.

Haverfordwest is a nice place but not coastal.

In reply to Michael Hood:


But we all know they have been baaaad.

In reply to The Lemming:

Bessies

In reply to Welsh Kate:


A shepherd needs a new sheepdog so he goes to the breeder who tells him “I’ve got this fantastic young dog, fully trained and really amazing as he can talk and count. He’ll make your job much easier; all you have to do is tell him what to do”
“Brilliant” thinks the shepherd and buys it.
First day at work, he tells the dog to gather the sheep in the top field and bring them in for shearing.
The dog goes off and is back 20 minutes later “Right” it says to the shepherd “I’ve got the sheep into the pen and there are 50 of them.”
“That’s funny” says the shepherd “there should only be 46”
“I know” says the dog “I rounded them up!”

In reply to The Lemming:

Snorkelling at St Brides Bay. Sea kayak from Solva towards St Davids. Pembs coast is amazing!

In reply to Paulos:


Do you mean St Brides Haven? GR SM801108 I agree the snorkelling is good there.

St Brides Bay is the whole chunk of sea between Marloes and St Davids - a bit big for one snorkelling session!

I would recommend the evening boat trip around Skomer and Skokholm from Martin's Haven: http://www.pembrokeshire-islands.co.uk/boat-trips/sea-safari/skomer-and-sko... You see loads of birds from the boat - we even saw a peregrine - as well as seals, and then you get to see the shearwaters as they head back to the island at dusk.

There's a guy in Little Haven (just along the somewhat hairy coast road from Broad Haven) who will sell you fresh-caught mackerel, crabs and lobsters. He's on the corner as you turn in to the car park IIRC. The lady up at the "tourist information"/shop a few hundred yards up the hill towards Talbenny/Hasguard should be able to give you precise directions.

The Blue Lagoon is somewhat over-rated these days IMO - full of screeching coasteering groups and tombstoners (it felt a lot more 'secret' 40-50 years ago when I used to go there with my parents). However, the walk over from Abereiddy to Porthgain is very pleasant, and The Sloop Inn in Porthgain is excellent (try the fresh crab sandwiches if they're on the menu). There's a nice inland route back to Abereiddy if you tire of endless sea views, or you don't trust yourself on the cliff path after a few pints...

A visit to Tregwynt Woolen Mill is best followed, IMO, by a walk down the wooded valley to Aber Bach. At low tide you can scramble round from there, on the rocks above the sea, to Abermawr. At high tide you can walk over the small headland. Abermawr is interesting for two things: it's where one of the earliest submarine telegraph cables to Ireland came ashore, and it was the site originally proposed as the terminus for Brunel's South Wales Railway. The destination of the line was later switched to Goodwick (aka Fishguard Harbour) before work came to a standstill as a result of the Irish Potato Famine. (The SWR was eventually to terminate at Neyland in 1856, with the line to Goodwick only being completed in 1899).

There's another woollen mill near Solva, if you're in to Welsh blankets and the like and want to shop around a bit.

Tenby is, as others have said, far too busy, and with not a whole lot to actually make it worthwhile going there IMO - there are nicer, and certainly quieter, beaches in the north of the county. I've been told that there is a bluestone from the Preseli Hills in the harbour wall at Tenby, one theory being that it must have been dropped when it was being loaded onto a boat or raft to be taken across the Bristol Channel to be used for the building of Stonehenge. (There's a good walk in the Preselis that takes you to the site where the bluestones are supposed to have been quarried, on Carn Menyn near Mynachlog-ddu.) It's alleged that a local man from Saundersfoot built and flew something approximating to an aeroplane in 1896, seven years before the Wright brothers first flew at Kittyhawk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Frost

If you fancy a decent dinner then I can recommend Cnapan on the main street in Newport. Cwtch in St David's is more well-known (if only because its name means "cuddle") but I've not actually eaten there myself.

Brian John's Angel Mountain Saga is quite a good series of novels set around the Newport area from the mid-1790s onwards. A kind of Pembrokeshire Poldark, if you will.

In reply to Martin W:

The Blue Lagoon is unfortunately visited by more people these days as a consequence of people recommending it on websites such as this. Mea culpa.

In reply to Martin W:

Yes I meant St Brides Haven. Great post by the way - I will have to take up some of your suggestions next time i'm over there.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

It's been featured in a number of TV programmes as well.

I have a clear memory of my first visit there, which would have been sometime in the early 1970s. There must have been no more than half a dozen folks exploring the place, when all of a sudden this group of a dozen or so 'beautiful young things' appeared and began to disport themselves around the slipway and in the water (it was a scorching day). They were perfectly civilised in their behaviour and when we got chatting to them it turned out that they were members of a theatre company which was performing The Lady's Not For Burning in the Bishop's Palace in St Davids that evening. I remember, as a callow 11 or 12 year old, being quite overawed by the attractive young female members of the troupe, particularly since they were attired for sunbathing and swimming... Of course we went to see the performance that evening, which I found utterly captivating. (It helped that it didn't rain.)

A more recent experience at Abereiddy was seeing a surfer confidently slam the tailgate of his BMW estate, only to discover that his board had been protruding rather more than he expected, thus shattering the car's rear window. My, how we all laughed. Except for the people making their way off the beach barefoot...