The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park was established in 1952 and was the 5th National Park created in Britain. It is the only fully coastal National Park and stretches around the edge of south-west Wales. Here are some of my favourite fun facts: 1. St David's is the smallest city in Britain, in terms of size and population. It is named after the patron saint of Wales. 2. Most of the National Park lies within 2 miles of the coast. Nowhere is more than 10 miles from the coast. 3. Grassholm Island, an RSPB reserve located 11 miles off the Marloes Peninsular looks perpetually snow-capped. It's not though! It just looks that way thanks to the 39,000 breeding pairs of gannets who make it their home. The 'snow' is their droppings (guano). 4. Coasteering was invented in Pembrokeshire in the 1980's. In case you haven't heard of it, it is an adrenaline-fuelled adventure sport that involves scrambling and climbing around the rocky coastline then jumping off cliffs into the sea. 5. Freshwater West was the setting for Shell Cottage in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bill and Fleur's cottage was built and filmed on the beach - but sadly it is no longer here. 6. If you walk the entire Pembrokeshire Coast Path, you will ascend a height higher than Mount Everest! The total rise and fall of this National Trail is 35,000 ft, compared to Everest's height of 29,000 ft. 7. The equals sign (=) was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde, who came from Pembrokeshire. He was a Welsh physician and mathematician.
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When we visited the Pembrokeshire Coast last month, we hoped to spot an otter (or two). With that aim in mind, we visited Bosherston Lakes (aka the Lily Ponds). We planned to do the National Trust's Stackpole wildlife walk (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stackpole/trails/stackpole-wildlife-walk) and to look for otters around the Eight Arch Bridge. ![]() Unfortunately, we have a pretty pants satnav that we can't rely on, so when it directed us left up a signed dead-end road, we decided to follow the road signs instead and turned right. We found ourselves in Bosherton instead of Stackpole Quay and decided to start our walk from there. (And in case you're wondering, that's a toilet block behind Simon with reasonably clean toilets!) ![]() We loved the Bosherton Causeway which took us across one of the lakes. It made me feel like Indiana Jones crossing a dangerous rickety bridge (although it was not very dangerous - if you're sensible - and certainly not rickety)! I won't give you all the boring (read: embarrassing) details but we got Stackpole mixed up with Stackpole Quay and ended up taking a long detour to our lunch stop. On the up side, it was a beautiful day and we had a lovely walk! ![]() So, did we find otters? Sadly, no, although we think we found signs of them - a little pile of fish scales and remains on a ledge under a bridge. We did, fortunately, spot a lot of bird life, including herons, cormorants, red kite, little grebe and a goldcrest. So at least we found some wildlife on our visit! We had a lovely time in the Pembrokeshire Coast, despite not seeing the wildlife we hoped to. I think it was a real bonus visiting out of season, as some locals we met said it was packed during the summer months. As it is, we had some lovely scenery all to ourselves!
I would love to tell you that we saw loads of exciting wildlife while we were in the Pembrokesire Coast, given that was one of our challenges, but sadly I can't. We drove to Strumble Head, where we expected to spy some seals but I think that a combination of it being the wrong time of year and pretty windy weather meant that we didn't see any. Pupping season (in the autumn) is supposed to be the best time to see them and when it's windy, they tend to hide out in sheltered coves that are best seen by boat. Unfortunately, we were at the top of the cliffs looking down. ![]() If it hadn't been so windy we might have seen some out at sea and if Jay hadn't fallen asleep in the car after an exhausting hike around Dinas Island, we might have explored the coastline a little bit more. As it is, we just parked up, took a few photos of the lighthouse at Strumble Head, and drove off to look for the starling murmuration. We didn't really leave enough time to look properly for seals, either that day or any other during our trip, but I'm sure we will be back in the future. For our first attempt at seeing a display of thousands of starlings flying in acrobatic formation, we went to Plumstone Mountain. Since starlings come together in this way before they roost for the night, it meant hanging around on the top of this hill towards the end of the day. ![]() It was still windy, made worse by the fact we were in a high up, exposed location, and as the sun set it become increasingly cold as well. I fully expected the kids to be miserable and whiny but, up until then, I didn't appreciate how much joy they would derive from a huge pile of stones! They climbed, explored and staked out their claim on various hidey holes as their dens. Sun set brought pretty pink and purple colours to the sky and we hung around until darkness set in but only spied a red kite and fourteen starlings - which is probably too few to be considered a murmuration! ![]() The following evening we tried again but this time we went to Minwear Forest. It was the end of another busy day out so Jay fell asleep in the car on the way there again and I didn't have the heart to wake him up, so I waited with him while Simon and Eve walked the short way to the picnic point in the forest where murmurations have been seen. It was another no show, unfortunately. Perhaps the starlings had gone to Plumstone instead that night?!? So, wildlife spotting didn't go so well for us, unfortunately. It was fun looking though!
Great news - May has made her way to the Pembrokeshire Coast. She is currently residing in a geocache near Carew Castle. It's 2-all so far. I can't wait to see where she goes next. Our next stop will be the Peak District - but surely it will be too much of a coincidence for her to go there next as well!
Just a quick note this time to say that Pwllgwaelod is a good place to go rock pooling with kids, when the tide is out. We found a helpful leaflet on some of the things that you can look for: www.pembrokeshirecoast.org.uk/files/files/Wildlife/RockPooling.pdf We brought nets and a bucket with us but didn't use them in the end (so glad I carried them around the entire Dinas Island walk!!!). Jay did swish his net around in a few puddles - just because it's fun! - but he discovered that's not very helpful when you're rock pooling as it disturbs the sand and makes the pool cloudy. When we were done, we also explored some of the cool looking caves around the beach. None seemed very deep - or rather, we weren't willing to go in too far to see, in case they weren't safe, but we thought they were pretty exciting anyway. Might visit some proper caves at some point this year!
If you love being by the sea and going for coastal walks, you will love the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It is Britain's only coastal National Park and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail snakes around the edge for 186 miles, taking in some breathtaking scenery. As you know, we want to experience something in each National Park that makes that place special, so walking at least some of this Trail was a no-brainer. The question was, which part to experience?? There is so much of it to chose from and it covers a wide variety of landscapes, from award-winning beaches to clifftops to sheltered coves where seals like to hang out. In the end we settled on a walk that skirts around Dinas Island because a) I like high up walks and b) we were amused to discover that the peak is called Pen y Fan, which is the mountain we climbed up in the Brecon Beacons last month! Pen y Fan roughly translates to 'top of the hill/mountain', so not actually that surprising to find another place with this name, but we took to it be a sign that that was where we should go. We have become big fans of the National Trust's walks as the routes are always well considered and well described and they helpfully provide information about where to park and local facilities - I really recommend checking out their website the next time you plan a walk. On this occasion, we followed their Dinas Island trail (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/strumble-head-to-cardigan/trails/dinas-island-spectacular-walk), which is a circular walk starting and finishing at Pwllgwaelod. (No, I don't know how to pronounce that!) First thing to say about this walk...there are toilets at the start, in the car park at Pwllgwaelod - yay! And they were reasonably clean - double yay! I know, I know, I am obsessed with toilets but when you are hiking with kids, you really need to know they are available at the start and end of a long walk. Peeing outdoors is not a favoured activity of ours, except in direst circumstances. The second thing to note is that the first section of the walk is quite steep but it does ease off quite quickly and the second half of the route descends gently and is pretty easy. Jay declared about a third of the way round that he was tired and wanted to turn back, but being a circular walk I could happily tell him that we were already heading towards the car park! My third piece of information is advice and a plea - check the weather before you head out and please, please don't do this in strong winds. The route takes in a high, steep, exposed clifftops and I imagine it would be pretty easy to get blown over. Wind speeds were predicted at 60-70 mph the day after we went and I don't think you could do the walk safely in conditions like that. It was already quite windy on the day we went out and we unintentionally littered when Jay opened his Yo-Yo Bear fruit roll on the summit and the wind whipped the collectible card out of the packet and blew it away. ![]() We stopped for lunch at Cwm-yr-Eglwys and sat on a windy bench facing the sea. The ruins of a chapel located here are a Pokestop so we took this opportunity to pick up some items. (In case it's helpful to know, there are some public toilets near here as well, but we didn't use them so I can't rate their usability!) After lunch we said goodbye to the coast and the rest of the walk back to the car park was flat and easy. We finished our walk back at Pwllgwaelod and as the tide was out when we arrived, we took the opportunity to go rock pooling. I will write about that and share some photos another time.
Best wishes, L,S,E&J As you know, we are racing our geocaching Travel Bug around the National Parks. So far, it's 2-1 to us, as May has only visited the Brecon Beacons where we dropped her off. But we were really excited to hear that she was picked up yesterday and will be travelling towards the Pembrokeshire Coast next week - coincidentally where we have just returned from. It finally feels like the race is on!
If you're interested, you can track May's whereabouts by visiting www.geocaching.com/track/ and using the Tracking Code TBKNEK. We have just spent a few memorable days in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, although they were perhaps not memorable for the reasons we expected! Having set out to spot wildlife, we ended up seeing very little of our target animals (otters, seals and a murmuration of starlings). When I say 'very little', I actually mean none, unless Jay's toy otter, a Seel in Pokemon Go and a small group of 14 starlings count but I don't think they do! So, why was this trip memorable? Well, because we failed so miserably, I think! I really thought finding seals would be a given, even though it is harder to spot them at this time of year than in the autumn when it is pupping season. As it is, I think we took it for granted too much and we therefore weren't especially sensible about the time of day that we went looking. Nor did we leave enough time to try other locations when the first one didn't work out. Otters, we knew were a big ask, and we really didn't expect to find any. However, our half hour walk around Bosherton Lakes turned into a 5 hour trip, after we parked at the wrong car park and started the walk at the wrong place, then discovered that the pub we planned to have lunch at was in Stackpole, not Stackpole Quay, which is not quite the same place! We ended up taking a detour that amounted to hiking three sides of a square. As for the starling murmuration (a spectacular display of thousands of birds in the sky), I wasn't really sure whether we would be able to see one. But we tried on two consecutive nights in two locations and standing around as the sunset in the winter was cold! What I will remember from this part of our trip is that Simon promised me hot chocolate but failed to deliver! The best he could offer was a Snickers bar (which I don't like) - humph! Having said all that, our trip really was memorable for good reasons too. The sunset from the top of Plumstone Mountain was beautiful; we loved crossing the causeway footbridges over Bosherton Lakes; and the kids had some of the best chips ever with their lunch at the Stackpole Inn (highly recommended!).
We packed a lot in to a few days (on which I will write more later) and l appreciated every minute of it, even when things weren't quite going right. At the end of the day, we still found our adventures, even if they weren't what we planned - because, let's be honest, if everything went as planned, it could hardly be called an adventure! I’m a frustrated wildlife nut at heart but having two young children, does not make for a fantastic wildlife watching experience most of the time (especially with Jay fighting imaginary battles along the way)! Now they are getting a little older I am getting increasingly optimistic regarding our chances to see something worthwhile. The Pembrokeshire Coast is a great location and whilst we will inevitably miss some of the iconic spectacles that can be witnessed at other points in the year (pupping seals in the autumn, flocks of nesting seabirds in the spring/summer), I’m still optimistic that it could be a fruitful trip.
So, what might we see. Well, we are hoping to track down some otters (our last otter hunting trip in Shetland proving unsuccessful) near Bosherston Lakes and perhaps if we are lucky some moulting seals as we traverse some of the coastal path towards the north of the Park. We are planning a walk around Dinas Island and I also understand that we may get lucky and spot a pod of porpoises in this area close to the shore, or even more rarely basking sharks, whales or dolphin (not overly optimistic but you never know). Around Dinas Island there are also apparently a couple of prime rock pooling beaches (Pwllgwaelod and Cwm-yr-Eglwys), so we’ll probably have nets hanging from our rucksacks for the trip rather than the more usual walking poles! Pembrokeshire is also famous for its birdlife and as such I’d love to catch some of the more eclectic species the region has to offer like Choughs, Golden Plover, Goldeneye, Peregrine Falcons etc. Finally, for an evening spectacle, I’m hoping to cajole the family into trying to spy a starling murmation (a huge flock often numbering in the hundreds of thousands that wheels around the evening sky prior to roosting) at either Dudwell or Plumstone Mountains (SM918234/SM914233), which are both conveniently close to where we are staying, and/or Minwear Woods (SN054139 – Canaston Bridge), nearer to where we are hoping to spy the otters. Either way, a nice thermos of hot chocolate should I think be all the coercion needed to get the family on board. We are heading off to the Pembrokeshire Coast soon and I'm starting to regret not tying it into our visit to the Brecon Beacons at the start of this month. Not that we could have done, as we didn't have enough days off work and school to spend longer in Wales, but now that the trip is getting closer I am somewhat resenting how long it will take to get there. The problem is that the Pembrokeshire Coast is such a dratted long way from where we live in Essex! We will be driving roughly due west across the entire width of one of the widest parts of Britain to get there. It is a five hour drive but will take closer to six once we factor in the obligatory food and toilet stop (and yes, lunch will take an hour, as Eve is a very slow eater!).
At one point, we had planned to tie in visiting the Pembrokeshire Coast with Snowdonia. Picking up the two remaining National Parks in Wales in one go seemed to make sense - until I discovered there are no fast roads from one to the other and it would entail a four hour drive between the two. We just don't have enough time during our long weekend away to travel that extra distance, so we ditched that plan in favour of visiting Snowdonia at the same time as the Peak District later in the year. I'm feeling horribly exhausted by the prospect of going away at the moment. Probably because of my bad commute to work today (a 3 hour round trip via train and tube on a normal day but there were signalling problems this morning which meant I arrived very, very late). Oh to live somewhere I could walk to work - or even kayak! That would be a lot more fun! |
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