A Tour of South-Eastern Pembrokeshire - 51° 40 27" N, 04° 42' 13" W

When Eve and Darrel suggested a day out touring around SE Pembrokeshire, we jumped at the chance, confident they would take us to places we would not find ourselves.  We appreciate them sharing their love of the region with us, telling us stories, teaching us how to pronounce place names (Dinbych-y-pysgod, yikes, we'll stick with Tenby) and generally being jolly, good fun to hang out with.

Our tour of South-East Pembrokeshire started with the visit to Saint Govan's Chapel.  This chapel is built into the limestone cliffs and dates from somewhere around the 5th century.  Legend has it that St Govan was enjoying an amble in the country when he was ruthlessly pursued by a gang of bloodthirsty pirates. The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park website provides the rest of the story.  

The Chapel tucked down the cliff

Miraculously as he was running away from these pirates, a cleft opened up in the cliff above him and he was able to tuck inside it and hide. It was such a squash and a squeeze in that place, however, that even today you can still see the marks his rib cage made on the rocks.  St Govan stayed in hiding until the pirates sailed away. Then, miraculously, the cleft in the rock opened up once again. But St Govan quickly decided that the safest thing for him would be to continue living in that rocky cell.

Great views but a bit too dank for my liking

The way he survived was by eating fresh fish from the ocean and drinking water from a sacred spring that flowed nearby. He also had a magic bell and this St Govan would always ring, most probably to warn anyone else in the area, whenever the pirates returned.

The pirates were not happy about St Govan’s bell and cunningly they managed to steal it.  However, justice was done to those evil men when a terrible storm blew up, and in the storm, their ship was sunk.

Angels then came and retrieved the bell. When they brought it back to St Govan, they encased it in the middle of a huge rock so that it would never again be stolen. Thereafter, whenever St Govan tapped this rock in times of need, it sounded a note a thousand times stronger than the original bell.

The next stop on our tour was at the Bosherston Lily Ponds which are man-made ponds that fill with water lilies in the summer.  Unfortunately, we were a bit early for the water lilies and managed just the odd bulb bravely pushing through the soil.   

We followed the trail to Broad Haven South Beach which is a sandy beach backed by sand dunes.  with the tide out, there was plenty of golden sand to play on - just not quite the weather for lazing on the beach just yet!

Broad haven South looking towards Church Rock

Looking across the lily ponds

The next stop on our tour was Tenby.  Tenby is a delightful resort town with colourful buildings and an over supply of gift shops! Although overrun by tourists in the summer, we enjoyed a quieter time hiding from the brisk and chilly north wind that barrelled down the narrow streets.  Naturally, we found a pub and had a fabulous lunch and tasted the local brew. 

Of course Tenby has a castle, but it's in ruins and this is The Five Arches Gate - part of the
town fortifications

Tide's out! 

The RNLI where Wally the Walrus spent a spring lounging on the lifeboat slipway and causing mischief back in 2021.  touring with an RNLI volunteer was most handy as Darrel explained how the boats were launched and retrieved.  Being on a lifeboat during a launch would be awesome!!

This is the old RNLI station. Now a private home, it was featured on Grand Designs

The new lifeboat station.  We are still blown away that the RNLI is not government funded
and relies on donations and volunteers - and has for over 200 years.

So once again, a great, big thank you to Eve and Darrel.  Your tour guiding is five-star and we will leave you an excellent review on Trip Advisor!!

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