2025 – Wales – Pembrokeshire – Cathedral – Castle & Coast

We awe nwaering the end of our time away from New Zealand, so its just a short trip into the Principality of Wales, tp the west coast of Pembrokeshire an area we do not know well. Weather permitting we wanted to spend a few days on the Coastal Walkway, in the end we got to explore St David’s Cathedral in pouring rain, Pembrokeshire Castle in an odd shower but one day of sunshine for a coastal walk.

With a population of less than 2000, St Davids is Great Britain’s smallest city by some margin, the presence of a Cathedral was enough in 1995 for it to have “city status” bestowed. Our first morning in West Wales dawns wet and windy, so we sought out the St Davids Information Office and Cafe – what to do in West Wales when it’s raining!! Head south we are told ,by a friendly young chap at the Info Office to Pembroke itself, weather drier and the Castle well worth visiting, that is, after morning tea at the excellent Cafe.

Sitting at the end of a ridge, now the High Street, Pembroke Castle is protected on 3 sides by steep drops down the cliff faces to the sea and estuary below. In fact only Cromwell and his troops were able to storm the castle and did so by using ships cannons fired from the seaward sides, an issue not considered by the Normans whom just after 1066, built the first elements of what we see today.

Pembroke Castle was neat, a cold damp day, but brought alive by our “tour guide”, who on greeting us inside the Castle, then took us outside the main Gate and explained in some gory detail how the Castle defences worked so well. Slits in the walls for the archers to fire through, Lance holes in the walls for lances to strike attackers from the side, then holes for boiling oil, or limestone or human waste to be poured down on the attackers. Lovely stuff.

With a few hours of daylight left, and a dry afternoon, we drive south to the coast, through an Army Tank firing range to see – The Green Bridge of Wales and the Elegug Stacks- super impressive in gale force winds.

After a couple of days of miserable wet weather, Monday dawned clear, sunny and windless – whoopee!! – we get to see a bit of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in all its glory. We managed a lovely loop walk from Porthclais Harbour just south of St Davids – gorgeous, and we will be back.

From St Davids, we headed north to Aberystwyth and on to the Lake District. But we stopped for a brief exploration of Aberystwyth , admired the sea front – slightly well worn to be fair but the funicular was impressive, even after we walked up and rode down!!