The forecast was good so we planned an earlier start to aim for sunlight hitting the southern cliffs at the Elegug Stacks and the Green Bridge of Wales. Unfortunately I didn’t do enough research as we discovered there was an Army tank range between all the approach roads and the cliffs and the red flags were flying. So we decided to circum-navigate around the camp to Saint Govan’s Chapel and walk back along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. It wasn’t our day as another red flag and a closed gate prevented that approach as well. So the Saint Govan’s Chapel ended up being our consolation prise for the morning – which was quite interesting.
Heading over the cliff and down another set of steep steps we arrive at a stone chapel wedged in the rocks. The entrance at the bottom of the steps in the adjacent image.
Dating from the 5th or 6th Century, St Govan was reputed to be a hermit monk who guarded St Govan Head from Irish pirates. The image below shows a very basic enclosure:-
It was a difficult image to capture with strong lighting outside the doors and windows, whilst the inside was very dark. Stepping behind the camera and outside into the sunlight we enjoyed the full panorama of the location.
Down at the rocky coastline was another small arch which I photographed with a ‘6 stop’ filter to increase the exposure time and blur the sea.
Heading east from here we travelled on to Stackpole Quay which had a very large National Trust car park. The actual breakwater quay was a challenge getting to as I had to get down some metal caged ladders – barely enough room for the camera gear on my back.
To be honest, we were surprised at the size of the car park – it wasn’t representative of what we expected to see. Maybe most visitors take the Pembrokeshire Coastal path from here.
Time for some lunch, so we headed into Pembroke and visited the castle. The café inside was fantastic – hot, (not luke warm) coffee and filling packed baguettes. We would recommend this, but of course you’ve got to pay the entry fee to access it. The castle was better preserved than most we see, but we’re now past walking up and down the spiral stairs inside the towers. We’ll leave that to the youngsters.
Moving on, we travelled to Carew Castle and Tide Mill which was only 12 minutes away.
We arrived at the same time as a wedding party – we assumed they were having their wedding reception inside. One of the castle attendants made the comment that they may need more clothes as it was freezing inside – we were cold, but were wrapped up.
The sun was still making an occasional appearance, so we headed west for 45 minutes hoping for some late evening light on the rocky coast line near Skomer Island. Unfortunately the sun wasn’t playing ball when we arrived, so we had a short walk and took a few snaps – we need better light to do this area justice.
So far each location we have visited is within 45 minutes of our motorhome, so hopefully more locations to come, but the weather for the next few days doesn’t look promising, so this could be the last update for now.
Bateson's Travel log 