Angle, Bosherston, Broad Haven - 18th August, 2015

So we had had a really marvellous day yesterday walking at Castlemartin West (if you've missed it, see the end of the Coastal Path blog), and a fantastic seafood dinner at the hotel last night. Wales should make more of its seafood dishes for sure! Today we had decided we would like to see more of the Angle peninsula...We parked the car in Angle village and set off to West Angle Bay...

 It was another sunny, blue sky day as we looked across the Cleddau estuary to the Dale peninsula with St Anne's lighthouse at its tip...Whilst there on the tip of West Angle bay's clifftop, is an ancient barrow...hadn't seen that when we had walked around there in the wind in 2013!

 We enjoyed a coffee at the Wavecrest cafe seen below first of all - that had been a complete ruin when we were last there. We had eaten our lunch there once we had rounded the peninsula and could shelter from the wind -

 - and it was where first aid had had to be applied to Chris's cut head on our earlier excursion...

As we left West Angle Bay behind, we had time to take a small diversion to see where the harbour had been made here, just a passage blown through the rocks to make a sheltered little harbour which nowadays makes a secret little beach.

 We rounded the headland passing Thorn Island - still no hotel has been started here, what a shame! And then we got views across the Haven, to Stack Rocks fort with the refinery behind it. Not sure what the news is about the refinery - it was under threat of closure which would be a massive blow to emplyment in Milford Haven so hope it has a good ending.

 And beyond the fort is the village of Dale on its peninsula - another revisit methinks...

 We passed the gas ships offloading, tug boats, speedboats, harbourmasters boats - and a ferry arriving down the estuary. There is so much to watch on a walk down here. We walked around Chapel Bay with its fort (not open to visitors today) and passed the new lifeboat station. As we approached the Old Point House pub, we looked across to Rhoscrowther and its Valero refinery - with happy memories.

It was a very welcome return to the Old Point House where we enjoyed a light lunch in the cool interior - it was warm out there in the sun now.

Suitably refreshed, we wandered down passing the little boats at anchor in the old harbour with the tide well out - last time we were here, the boats were fastened tightly down against the really high winds..hard to imagine now..

So we headed along the bay back to the car..passing the 14th century Tower House, an unusual building for Wales, more reminiscent of the defensive peel towers of Scotland and Ireland. 

 We were heading back to Stackpole now - all this travelling is so much easier with a car to take short cuts! But first we wanted to have a brief look at Freshwater West. The walk here on our Coastal Path campaign was so unforgettable! The storm was threatened and came - it was crazy. I can never forget the noise of the wind and the waves as we we walking around here in 2013! Today it was just idyllic! We would have stopped and had a little beach walk but it was too busy. There was just nowhere sensible to park so a quick photo was all we could manage ....here looking towards Milford Haven and beyond to the Dale peninsula and Skomer island....

 ....and here looking across to Castlemartin West, Linney Head where we had walked yesterday.

 We had a little look around the huge walled garden at Stackpole Estate which was very pleasant. The garden now is looked after by gardening students and you can buy produce there. There is a lot to see about the history of the gardens as they would have been producing food for the old estate. We then made our way - in the car!- to Bosherston. Again, it was very busy but we managed to find a parking space. We wandered down through woods and wended our way around the magnificent lily ponds. They are just amazing. How did they think of creating these ponds so close to the sea!

 Lots of creatures to spot again - including brilliant blue dragonflies..

 We failed to find a hillfort around here somewhere but just continued over the grassy bridge and through the dunes down to Broad Haven with Church Stack in its middle!

 Looking back at the beach you can see the dunes stretch so far...

 And we followed the coast path once more with Stackpole Head and Caldey Island and of course Church Stack to watch as we went...

 As we passed close to St Govan's Head, there was a rescue underway for a girl climber (there are lots of climbers on this stretch) with lots of emergency vehicles and personnel in attendance..we continued on our way, aiming to get to Stack Rocks and back to the Green Bridge..passing here Huntsman's Leap...a good story!

 We reached almost as far as Bullslaughter Bay but were stopped by a field of cattle which I didn't fancy passing through today. It was getting late and into evening now too so we turned round - first getting a view of the Green Bridge and Stack rocks though indistinctly - and also of The Wash, where we had seen so many fossils yesterday..

 As we walked back towards St Govan's, we could clearly see Lundy Island...how many miles away?

 And then there was the search and rescue helicopter resting just above the cove where St Govan's chapel is hiding- waiting for a drop in the wind and so on to make it safe to pick up the injured girl..I was actually photographing a bird here...a spotted flycatcher...but got the chopper too!

As we passed the rescue site, the helicopter took off so we watched as the winch was dropped and then brought up with the injured on a stretcher before being whisked across the sea to Swansea and safety! We found out later that the girl had fallen whilst climbing and broken her leg and injured her back. It was amazing and quite humbling to see those brave people in action.

We retraced our steps along the coastal path to Broad Haven following a family group carrying their 2 boats - we thought it would have been much easier to sail them back around...We crossed the beach now with lots of people taking their leave too and got back to the lily ponds and back to the car for our homeward journey!

It had been a wonderful little holiday - and revisits were so successful.....where next??

Stackpole once more - 16th August, 2015

As you may have read in the coastal path blog..., we had determined to walk the MOD Castlemartin part of the Pembrokeshire coast and to do that we had had to book. So we made another little holiday weekend around  the pre-booked day which meant we could also plan more walks!

We were staying in a superb hotel, Trefloyne Manor at Penallt just west of Tenby, so we had a to of coast to choose from for a revisit. We decided that we would like to see the iron age hillfort (would you believe?) at Greenala Point so Stackpole Quay was our destination on the 16th August, the day before Castlemartin West. Our coastal path walk as far as Stackpole Quay had been in October, 2013 and was with my niece, Catherine and husband, Joe. Into Tenby had been a lovely, sunny day and the following day with Joe started sunny and bright but by the time we had reached Manorbier, the clouds were gathering. So as a result we had been very wet by the time we reached Greenala and not really had a good look around. This was the opportunity to put that bit right! It was a long drive down to Tenby - mostly because roads were closed unannounced! We arrived at the Stackpole Quay car park and were amazed at the number of people! It was so busy - so unlike our last visits, both when we arrived by foot with Joe and when we left the Quay to head further! It was so good to be back on the coast again - we do miss it! Still going the wrong way for the outward walk to Greenala!

It was a clear day, maybe a bit hazy but even so the views were great - across to Greenala and out there to Caldey Island..

It was so wonderful to have time to just walk across to the fort and then just look around at leisure - a very worthwhile explore too.

The earthworks are still so impressive from every angle...

What a shame so many promontory forts have now fallen into the sea. And then we could look back towards Barafundle Bay and Stackpole Head...

As we headed back to the Quay, we had a first class view of a hunting merlin...first spotting his prey...

before swooping down to catch...

and then taking his catch to a cliff below us - spectacular!

We also spotted a group of people heading from Barafundle back to Stackpole on their standup paddleboards - with their dog aboard too!

And so back at the Quay we arrived...once important to land coal to heat the house at Stackpole and then take away the limestone..

Then we had decided we would like to know more about the Stackpole estate - again we simply didn't have time to venture inland when we were walking the coast path. We passed through the car park again heading inland first following a well made path over fields then crossing the 8 arch bridge over the lakes before heading up to the Stackpole Centre. This whole estate is now looked after by the National Trust. We visited the site of the original house with its views of the ponds...

and very cleverly there is a superimposed picture showing how the huge house would have appeared in the grounds...

 It must have been quite something to behold. Built by the Earls of Cawdor from the 17th century - although there were earlier settlements here. The estate remained in the Campbell family until 1963 when the new Earl first of all asked if her could reduce the size of the house so as to make the death duties less was then told he couldn't do that and so he simply demolished the whole place! The estate passed to the National Trust in 1970.
We then headed back towards the sea, first of all passing the first of the lily ponds

where there is a lot of wildlife....swans...

..ducks, moorhens, dragonflies - otters aplenty here but we didn't see one today...although we heard a big splash....
We crossed fields retracing our steps a little to find the Devil's Quoit, a standing stone in nearby fields..is it a glacial deposit or something our ancestors left behind, and if so why?

We somehow missed the path to the grassy bridge on the estate so instead we followed the dunes and found the coastal path again just east of Broad Haven. Wondrous views of Church Stack which I had photographed a lot on our last visit - and did again today!

We sat and admired the views for a while, just listening to the sea and watching! It could have been the Med! Seemed a bit strange to us not to be pressing on! Then we turned east and headed the wrong way - for us - on the coast path, back towards Stackpole - but first going around the edge to see Stackpole Head. Views across to Caldey were so clear. We remembered our walk around here in late October, 2013! Crikey, that was a wild day - the Mowingword promontory all peaceful today whereas it had been a seething whirlpool in 2013 - what a contrast to today's walk!

And still we kept uncovering more wildlife - but still don't know what this little fella is! He enjoyed posing for me anyway..is he a wheatear perhaps?

There were lots of visitors around the coast today - good to see but so different! As we got to Barafundle, it was still busy, busier than the picture shows...

But still as lovely....and a reminder at the eastern side with its crenellated wall, of its earlier origins as the private beach for the Stackpole Estate..

So we wended our way back to the car and onwards to the hotel...only 8 and a half miles at a leisurely pace..

Merthyr Mawr, Ogmore, Dunraven - 22nd July 2015

I don't think it was entirely accidental that we revisited a revisit ... we did love Ogmore the first time round back in June 2013. And we had said then that we would love to take our little - now not so little! - ones to Ogmore. So as we decided on a beach day when the boys came to stay in the summer for their little holiday with us, Ogmore was chosen. Previously they have loved going to the dunes at Ynyslas next to Borth so we thought they would also approve of the Merthyr Mawr/Ogmore dunes! It was a lovely sunny day as we set off southwards and other than the wind, it remained a lovely day.

 We parked at the end of the track from Merthyr Mawr and off we set in search of the sea!

 Up and down the dunes we went and indeed we had the dunes entirely to ourselves. Shoes were soon carried in preference to sand in shoes! The whole area here is a nature reserve, having been "saved" from being plundered in time gone by when it was massively used for sand and gravel extraction. The wild flowers are beautiful...here wild pansies, of which there were many..

 ...and there was lots of vipers bugloss, centaury, wild orchids, dewberry, and lots of grasses and fungi. Lots of regeneration programmes are planned for many of the dune areas around Wales to enhance the beauty of these lovely areas. Today it was really lovely to be walking these dunes with our boys!

 It was also easy to see why these dunes were used to film some of Lawrence of Arabia! And filming also takes place here for some of the Doctor Who programmes.

 My main concern was not to lose the boys - there they were ... somewhere...

 We did eventually find the sea......the North Devon coast clear to see. We had a little play in the sands but it was quite windy so decided to go back to the car and drive around to Ogmore itself....so different to having to walk up and down the estuary 2 years ago!

It was quite a trek back to the car but once there, I had to have a quick look around the ruins of Candleston castle which is just next to the car park there. It is in fact more of a fortified manor house - the ruins are of 14th century origin but it is believed the land was built on in Norman times...it was still used until the late 19th century as a farmhouse before it was evacuated perhaps because of encroaching sand. The castle at nearby Kenfig had been completely engulfed by sand by the late 15th century.

 So we drove around passing Ogmore by Sea as we had then decided to go to see "Camelot" - a possible site of it at any rate, at Dunraven. We parked at the private beach which before we have only walked past - and by now, Ben was determined to get into the sea! We walked down to the sea after we had sampled ice lollies and/or coffee at the little cafe there! And I have to admit did look quite tempting, except the wind was a bit chilly! It was very pretty in the sun.....

 So Ben did indeed take a dip - quite a long one. Whilst Alex and I jumped over rocks with the cliffs of the marvellous Glamorgan heritage coast looked over us!

A busy day was coming toward its end - and we were all a bit hungry now. We stopped off at Ogmore castle - and its stepping stones across the river Ogmore.....my old enemies!

 There is still quite a bit of the walls left - the castle having been built around 1100 by the Londres family apparently. We still didn't have time to actually visit the castle - another reason for a revisit!

 I had to at least stand on the stepping stones but this time with no need to go across!

It had been another wonderful day beside the sea at one of our favourite places which we had discovered because of the coastal path challenge! And now with even more memories, shared with our boys!