Wales - Round Two

The start of the beach at Broad Haven

Dave and the lily ponds

We had to go back to Wales the other weekend, to finalise some things for later in the year.  This time it was a long weekend, so we got to spend a lot more time checking out the surroundings.  Plus I made sure I didn't over-indulge quite as much on the wine this time round.

This meant I was actually able to go for a bit of a walk whilst I was there.    I had bought a new sat nav, they don't call them GPS's here, so was keen to test it out with a bit of driving.

I got a Garmin, they are so much better than Tom Tom's, it seems that the Avis hire company are tied to Tom Toms.  After our Peaks District experience, where it would constantly try to take you down tiny, snow-covered, dirt roads, I was keen to not have to use one of those again.

The other weird thing with Tom Tom's is just how bad their search functionality and touch screen technology is.  I mean touch screens are not a new technology, how long have iPhone's been around, and yet the touch screen on the Tom Tom's seem to perversely delight in misinterpreting any and all finger touches.  And lets not talk about what they call a search function.  Basically if you don't know the exact address then the Tom Tom can't take you anywhere.

Dave and the expansive Broad Haven beach

Looking back along the cliffs, broad haven is opposite the rocks in the water

Whilst trying to decide which walk to do out of my awesome walk book, a couple of locals, independently, told us we should go out to the lily ponds and Barafundle beach.  We had been tossing up going out to a broad leaved forest, but when locals tell you to do something, it's hard to ignore.  This walk included part of the 300km Pembrokeshire Coast Path.  As the name suggests, it's a trail following the entire coast of the Pembrokeshire coast, though recently this trail has been extended to include the entire coast of Wales, pretty impressive.

Dave and the lily ponds, no lilies were blooming unfortunately

Part of the cliffs, swarming with rock climbers

The walk starts in the tiny village of Bosherston (no idea how to pronounce this, and I couldn't understand the locals when they said it), which is south west of Narberth, where we were staying.  The lily ponds of the walk are part of an artificial lake, created in the 18th century by damming a creek.  These ponds used to form part of the extensive Stackpole estate, now owned by the National Trust, and these gentry really know how to pick the best spots.

We didn't see Barafundle Bay, we walked in the opposite direction to Broad Haven instead, but it is routinely voted one of Britain's best beaches.  And I know what all the Australians are thinking, as if that is much of an achievement right, being voted the best out of a pebbly, polluted, over-crowded lot isn't much.  But let me say the beaches I saw this last weekend have completely turned me around.  I really was not expecting them to look like they did.

There are no massive carparks on any of the ones we visited, most of them did involve a bit of a walk, never more than 20 minutes, which meant that even though the beach was huge, there was hardly anyone on them.  To add to this, they were normally framed by fairly spectacular cliffs.  If only the temperature had been about 10 degrees warmer I think Dave may have been tempted, it would have had to be about 20 degrees warmer for me, but then I am from the tropics.

After admiring the beach for a bit, we scaled the cliffs to start following the Coast Path.

St Govan's Chapel

The spectacular cliffs around these parts

Through here we pass through a military range, which was open this weekend.  I do wonder how often it is closed, since it was such a pretty part of the coast.  There were signs up warning not to touch any unexploded military material as you may die.  But then there were cows and sheep all over the place, so I'm not sure what happens if they step on any unexploded material, seems like it could get rather messy.

From Broad Haven beach we headed west, along the top of the cliffs towards St Govan's Head, this was a peninsular sticking out into the Bristol Channel, one side of which were these spectacular cliffs, I'm talking Point Perpendicular at Jervis Bay spectacular, and they basically ran the full length of the coast.  Obviously this place was covered in rock climbers, there were permanent tether points in the ground, but I think you had to insert your own shackles into the rock.

The scrub in bloom

Huntsman's Leap

The name of this peninsular comes from a hermit who lived in these parts in the late 500's AD.  Apparently he lived in a cave in a crevice in one of these cliffs. It is possible that he is Sir Gwaine from Arthur's round table, always my favourite knight.  As well as having a peninsular named after him, they also built a stone chapel where he was meant to have lived.  It's quite easy to miss the staircase leading down to the chapel, which is almost completely hidden from the top of the cliff.  It's a tiny chapel, only 5.5 x 3.6 metres and was built in the 13th century.  I'm not sure how many services were held here, but it's certainly lasted the test of time.

Walking on from the chapel there are many more strange rock formations, caves, deep crevices, arches and then suddenly you come upon Bullslaughter Bay.  Pretty strange name, but it's another big beach, nestled in amongst the cliffs.  This one had been taken over by rockclimbers (again).  I really don't know where the name comes from though.

Bullslaughter Bay

The Green Bridge of Wales

The final destination is the Green Bridge, which is a natural arch, surrounded by rock stacks.  These stacks were covered in sea birds, and it's here I was really wishing for either my telephoto lens or my binoculars.  If I'm going to be a twitcher I really have to carry these with me at all time.  I think they were guillemots, merely because these stack rocks are apparently the largest breeding spot in the south of Wales.  They were cool looking birds, like penguins, except they could fly.  The photos I've taken of them don't have enough zoom, so I can't be definitive that they were these, so no addition to my bird list unfortunately.

The rock stacks - covered in birds

After that it was a brisk walk back, that's the problem with these cliff-top style of walks, it's pretty hard to turn them into a loop, particularly if the ground is potentially littered with unexploded military material.  If you don't want to do the full 20kms that we did, it is very easy to drive to the different locations, Broad Haven, St Govan's Head and the Green Bridge all had easy access from car parks.

Back at Broad Haven

On the drive out to Bosherston we had passed what looked to be the ruins of a castle, on the banks of a river, this was probably 10 minutes drive from our hotel.  When the next day was a bit rainy we thought what better atmosphere for exploring old, ruined castles.

Carew Castle and the Mill pond

The Tudor additions on the right of the castle, with the fancy window frames

The castle is Carew, which was built mainly in the 13th and 14th centuries, in the late 16th century the Lord Deputy of Ireland was granted the castle by Elizabeth I and he built an impressive extension to the place.  The castle is still owned by the Carew family, though they now live in Somerset and lease the place to the national parks.

There are stories of ghosts haunting the place, don't all castles have to have a ghost?  This one is pretty special, one of the lords of the castle had a Barbary ape as a pet, one night the lord was apparently attacked by the ape, and both were killed.  Now the ghost of the ape is meant to haunt the halls, I would love to see an ape ghost.

Another famous occupant was Nest, who was the daughter of the last king of south Wales.  It seemed she had a pretty hard life, variously captured and married off to people.  She had an illegitimate son with Henry I, then was married off to someone back in Wales and had five children, she was possibly captured by someone and carried off during this period, before being returned.  Upon her husband's death she was then married to someone else with whom she had another two children.

Carew Castle ruins

The tidal mill and the mill pond

One thing which I think adds to the prettiness of Carew castle is the Mill pond, the castle is built on the Carew river, which is still tidal up to this point.  One of the previous lords had the bright idea of building a dam and a tidal mill.  So not only did the peasants have to pay the lord to grow things on the land, they also had to pay the lord to use the mill, to make flour.  I'm surprised feudalism lasted such a long time with this sort of behaviour.

The dam, with the smelly sea side on the right

The extensive beach at Tenby

The tidal mill is a pretty cool idea, the dam has two gates in it, when the tide is coming in the gates are pushed open and the water level rises, once the tide starts to go out, the force of the water shuts the gates and then the water is diverted through the mill, driving the wheels to crush the grain.  It did mean that the mill workers had to follow the tides, meaning they could end up working in the middle of the night.

Interesting island just off the coast

Last time I was in this part of the world I visited Saundersfoot, this time we went further west to Tenby.  This is a bigger town than Saundersfoot, and again had an amazing beach, it was massive.  The only thing I'm not sure about is how big the tides are here, it is possible that during high tide there may not be much beach remaining.

Where the Victorians liked to promenade

More pretty painted houses overlooking the beach

Tenby is much more of a tourist town than Saundersfoot, it certainly has a prettier harbour for one.  The town was walled in the 13th century.  These walls are really the sign of English occupation, so you wonder what the Welsh feel about them.  The earls of Pembroke controlled this town, these were English, and the first earl was created by King Stephen in 1138.  I don't think the Welsh were too keen on being controlled by the English as they attacked the town in 1187 and again in 1260.  During the war of the roses Henry VII sheltered here before sailing to exile.  King Henry VII was actually born in Pembroke castle, which is just around the corner, and some place we'll have to try and visit next time.

Tenby harbour with the pretty painted houses

No town is complete without an impressive church

After the excitement of all this Tenby started to decline in the 1600's mainly due to the plague and picking the wrong side in the English civil war.  But luckily for Tenby the Napoleonic wars meant rich English people could no longer visit the European beaches for their summer vacations, and had to find somewhere closer to home.  And thus the revival of Tenby began.

View of Saundersfoot from dinner location