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..