Walking in Pembrokeshire
Walking in Pembrokeshire
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Like the Finisterre of Galicia and the Land’s End of England, Pembrokeshire (or Pen-fro) has the same meaning for the Welsh, ‘the end of the land’. The southwesternmost tip of Wales, it presents a similar outline to the open seas as its more southerly namesakes, with ragged peninsulas reaching out towards the setting sun. Settled in the earliest times, these drawn-out strips of habitation share other things too: the roots of their Celtic culture, vividly portrayed in the enigmatic remains of ancient settlements and sacred sites; the commonality of native language; a passion for storytelling, legend and song. It is a place of great dramatic beauty, where land and sea stand in hoary confrontation, with bastions of craggy cliffs pushed back behind sweeping bays, and innumerable tiny coves separated by defiant promontories. But not everywhere is the demarcation clear. Tidal estuaries and twisting rivers penetrate deep into the heartland, where steep-sided valleys and sloping woodlands climb to a gently undulating plateau. The countryside is chequered with a myriad of small fields and enclosures bound by herb-rich boundaries of stone, earth and hedge. Even higher ground rises in the north, not true mountains perhaps in the expected sense, but bold, rolling, moorland hills from whose detached elevations the panorama extends far beyond the confines of the county’s borders.
The Legacy of The Past
There are few large towns, yet Pembrokeshire proudly boasts a city, the smallest in the land, which grew around the memory of Wales’ patron saint, David. It is a landscape of small villages and settlements, many at first sight quite deceiving of their past importance. But evidence of their history can often still be found, in the form of ancient churches, ruined castles, crumbling piers and the relics of industry, as well as the sometimes less tangible but equally voluble clues in prehistoric earthworks, enigmatic stones and even the very names of places and features. That collective story paints a very different picture to that seen today, in which Pembrokeshire appears remote from the cores of industry, commerce and administration, unconnected by motorways or air terminals, and with few main roads.
Up until the beginning of the last century, Pembrokeshire was less ‘land’s end’ and more ‘gateway’, not on the periphery but rather at the hub. Before the coming of the railways it was a maritime land, the focus of a web of sea routes to Britain’s great ports, Ireland, northwest Europe and beyond. Despite the dangers and vagaries of sea, weather and navigation, travel by boat around the coasts was relatively commonplace, and for bulky or weighty cargoes was the only economically practical means of transport. Five thousand years ago there was trade with Ireland, bringing precious gold and copper from the Wicklow Mountains to the main centres of Bronze Age civilisation in southern Britain on Salisbury Plain. For the Celts too, the sea was a highway, encouraging migration, the spread of ideas and the exchange of artefacts and produce. After the Romans left this island, Christendom established itself along the very same routes and Pembrokeshire assumed an importance comparable with other notable devotional centres around Britain such as Iona off Mull, and Holy Island on the Northumberland coast. It was from here in AD432 that St Patrick set sail to unify Christianity in Ireland, and during the early centuries of the second millennium two or three pilgrimages to St David’s had the same spiritual standing as a journey to Rome or Jerusalem. The Vikings were less welcome visitors, but the Welsh never lost the thread of their independent culture, even with the later settlement in at least part of Pembrokeshire by the Normans. Important trading ports developed throughout the medieval period such as Tenby and Pembroke, under the protection of great castles that sought both to establish authority over the land and define a frontier line of defence. Political quarrels with Spain and, later, France saw the strengthening of fortifications, most spectacularly around the vast inlet of The Haven, where naval dockyards exploited one of the world’s finest natural harbours, and which Nelson considered second only to Trincomalee in present-day Sri Lanka.
Bringing a previously unimaginable speed and ease to land travel in the 1840s, the early railways found in Pembrokeshire the quickest route from London to the western seaboard. They created a link from the first landfall with suitable harbour facilities for Irish and transatlantic shipping, whereby passengers and mail could reach London in the shortest possible time. Under the engineering genius of Brunel, new ports were built at Neyland and Fishguard. The hoped-for prosperity was short-lived, an economic disappointment repeated during the latter part of the 20th century when the oil and power industry’s ambitions for the development of The Haven declined.
The National Park
Today quiet and unhurried, Pembrokeshire is largely uncrowded by either residents or visitors, and has been spared much of the adverse consequence of the urban and industrial developments of recent decades. The unspoiled magnificence of its coastline, almost 200 miles (320km) of cliffs, bays, beaches and inlets, was recognised in its unique designation as a coastal National Park in 1952. Only the industrial areas lining the higher reaches of The Haven, and a short stretch abutting the Irish ferry terminal at Fishguard, were excepted. Many of Pembrokeshire’s other areas of outstanding beauty and important natural habitat were incorporated too: the Preseli Hills, the Gwaun Valley and the tidal reaches of the Daugleddau. But outside the park boundaries the countryside is not to be ignored, for there is an abundance of natural woodland, hidden valleys and pleasant riverside to explore.
Pembrokeshire's Coast
For the rambler, Pembrokeshire is nothing short of pure delight. Long-distance walkers will already know it for its 180-mile (290km) Coastal Footpath, arguably one of the finest routes in Britain. But its ready accessibility and serpentine geography ideally suit it for those with more modest ambitions too, and many of the most beautiful and dramatic sections provide splendid part- or full-day excursions. From a gentle 2-mile stroll to more challenging 12-mile hike, there is something for everyone in walks that follow the tops of precipitous cliffs or delve into secluded sandy coves. Examples of just about every type of coastal feature are explored, from cavernous blowholes to natural bridges, from solitary stacks to evidence of glacial erosion. Indeed, almost the whole geological history of the coast is revealed from the very earliest pre-Cambrian rocks exposed around St David’s to the sand dunes and shingle banks still in the process of being created today.
For the most part undisturbed by large settlement, wildlife of one kind or another is an ever-present distraction. Wildflowers carpet the coastal fringe, and animals such as foxes and rabbits are commonplace. There are plenty of other small mammals too, whilst adders and lizards can occasionally be found sunning themselves on the rocks. These are food for the many predatory birds that patrol the cliffs; kestrels and buzzards hover and wheel in the sky, and the peregrine falcon is once again nesting at a few sites along the coast. Chough and raven are everywhere, as is the ubiquitous pigeon, but it is the seabirds that understandably command the greatest attention. In spring and early summer during the breeding and feeding season, inaccessible cliffs around the coast – as well as the offshore islands such as Ramsey, Skomer, Skokholm and Grassholm – attract countless birds. Umpteen species, both resident and visiting, can be seen, and include gannet, fulmar, Manx shearwater, storm petrel, shag, cormorant, kittiwake, tern, guillemot, puffin and, of course, the razorbill, which the National Park has adopted as its emblem. The cliffs are a superb vantage for watching Atlantic grey seals, which appear at many places along Pembrokeshire’s coast throughout the year. They are most numerous during late spring and early autumn, when large numbers arrive to give birth to their pups. The rocky heads of tiny isolated coves or the dark recesses of sea caves serve as nurseries, which echo to the melancholy cries of the white pups awaiting their mothers’ return. You might also see some of the less-common visitors such as porpoises or dolphins and, if you are really lucky, perhaps a minke or orca whale.
An Unspoilt Hinterland
Away from the coast the walking is equally fine and there is just as much to see. Bold in profile and totally unspoilt, the Preseli Hills impart a wonderful sense of remoteness. Yet they are easily reached and on a fine day offer relaxed walking that is hard to beat. The views extend from one end of Wales to the other, and the mountains of Ireland are visible across the sea. Although lacking the rugged summits of Snowdonia or the English Lakeland hills, the tops are broken by enigmatic craggy outcrops, jumbled heaps of fractured rock that when half hidden by tendrils of swirling mist would not appear out of place in some alien planetary landscape. More mystery and conjecture is evoked by the numerous burial mounds, earthworks and cairns that litter the slopes, vestiges of civilisations that spanned 3000 years, from the time when the pyramids were built in Egypt until the Romans arrived in Britain in AD43…
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