St David’s Cathedral, slumbering in Britain’s smallest cathedral city
THE MOST WESTERLY VILLAGE IN WALES, ST DAVID’S has a population of some 2,000 and was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II in 1995. It is THE SMALLEST CATHEDRAL CITY IN BRITAIN, possibly in the world. It is also THE ONLY CITY IN BRITAIN TO LIE WHOLLY WITHIN A NATIONAL PARK, in this instance the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
As you approach from the east the first question that presents itself is, ‘Where is the cathedral?’ There appears to be nothing here except a pretty village grouped around a square with a preaching cross in the middle. Beyond is but grassy hummocks and sand dunes, sky and sea.
Your first sight of ST DAVID’S CATHEDRAL is one of those moments that stays with you for ever. Nothing has quite prepared you for the vista that unfolds as you step through the impressive 13th-century gatehouse, on the edge of the village, known as Porth y Twr. Tucked in a hollow, away from the wind and the Vikings, set lightly in a field of waving grass, mauve and honey-coloured from locally hewn stone flecked with green lichens, is the loveliest cathedral in the world. Others may be bigger or more beautiful or more spectacular, but none is more satisfying, or blends so effortlessly into the landscape, or is so redolent of the simple faith that built it. This wild and windswept corner of Britain has been a place of worship since St David founded a monastery on the site in the 6th century, and the atmosphere is powerful still.
The present cathedral was begun 1181, after St David had been canonised in 1120. It quickly became a place of pilgrimage, with people from all over Christendom coming to worship at his shrine. Pope Calixtus II decreed two pilgrimages to St David’s to be worth one to Rome – ‘Roma semel quantum: bis dat Menevia tantum’.
An elegant flight of 39 steps leads down to the cathedral. The exterior of the building is rough and plain, dominated by its four-square tower, which replaced one that collapsed in 1220. The cathedral bells are housed in the tower of the gatehouse, Porth y Twr, moved there in 1730 in case their weight should cause the main cathedral tower to fall in once more.
Inside, the floor is uneven, and some of the pillars seem to lean outwards, the legacy of an earthquake of 1248 that caused considerable damage. The interior is a wonderful jumble of different periods, the earliest being the 12th-century nave. Perhaps the greatest glory is the woodwork – a gorgeously ornate and solid 16th-century roof of Irish oak, mischievously carved misericords, and a rich 14th-century choir screen – all sensitively restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1862 and 1877.
A feature unique to St David’s, and found in no other cathedral, is a STALL THAT BEARS THE ROYAL COAT OF ARMS – the reigning monarch is a member of the Cathedral’s Chapter.
It was during Scott’s restoration that the bones of St David, thrown out by staunch Protestant Bishop Barlow in 1538, were rediscovered, and they are now preserved in an oak casket in the Sanctuary. In the south choir is the splendid stone tomb of the Welsh Prince, RHYS AP GRUFFUDD (1132–97), ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth, who convened Wales’s first National Eisteddfod at his castle in Cardigan in 1176. Next to him is GERALD CAMBRENSIS (1146–1223), one of the founders of the cathedral and celebrated for his chronicles of Welsh life, Journey through Wales and A Description of Wales. Before the High Altar lies EDMUND TUDOR, son of Henry V’s widow Catherine de Valois, husband of Margaret Beaufort, and father of Henry VII. His remains were brought here by his grandson, Henry VIII.
Right next to the cathedral, and somewhat overshadowed by it, are the impressive remains of the BISHOP’S PALACE, once the most sumptuous in Wales, built around a spacious courtyard in the 14th century, to reflect the majesty and power of the Bishops. Alas, in the 16th century, the incumbent Bishop of St David’s had five daughters, and felt obliged to strip the lead from the roof to pay for all their dowries. The palace was abandoned shortly afterwards in favour of the palace at Abergwili near Carmarthen.
Not far from St David’s, in a field overlooking the sea, are the ruins of a chapel dedicated to Non, St David’s mother. St David was born here, sometime around AD 500, at the height of a great storm, and at the moment of his birth a spring appeared at his mother’s feet to wash the baby clean. Now watched over by a statue of St Non, the well is reputed to have healing properties, particularly for the eyesight, and pilgrims to St David’s Cathedral would often pay a visit here. Inside the chapel, there used to be an altar made from part of the stone on which St Non was lying when she gave birth to David. So violent was the birth that the stone broke, and the imprint of her hand was left upon it. St Non’s Chapel is possibly THE OLDEST CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION IN WALES, and a remarkably beautiful place.
Foley House
HAVERFORDWEST MEANS ‘FORD of the heifer, or buck’, with ‘west’ tacked on, to distinguish it from Hereford in England. The local pronunciation is ‘Harford’, which is the same as the proper pronunciation for the English town of Hertford.
All roads in Pembrokeshire meet at Haverfordwest, which sits almost in the middle of the county, making it the perfect choice as county town. Encircled by three rivers, it is virtually an island, situated on a strong defensive site at the tidal limit of the Western Cleddau River. The Bristol Trader Inn on Quay Street is a reminder that Haverfordwest was once an important trading port, perhaps the most important in Wales before the railways took the trade away in the 1850s. The steep High Street leading up to the old Norman castle on the hill is one of the most handsome streets in Wales, lined with buildings of every age, including a fine Shire Hall of 1837. In Goat Street is one of John Nash’s earliest works, Foley House, built around 1790 for Richard Foley, brother of Admiral Thomas Foley who fought with Nelson at Cape St Vincent.
ST DAVID, Dewi Sant in Welsh, was descended from the Welsh kings of old. He was well educated at Whitland Abbey and travelled widely as a missionary, founding a number of abbeys, including Glastonbury. His legendary status was confirmed when the ground rose beneath his feet while he was preaching at Llanddewi Brefi (see Cardiganshire). He lived mainly on a diet of cress and water, becoming known as ‘Aquaticus’, and followed a simple, austere lifestyle as an example to others. He died on 1 March (now St David’s Day), in 589, at the monastery he had founded in a sleepy hollow in the far west of Wales, and was chosen as the patron saint of Wales when, in 1120, he became THE ONLY WELSHMAN EVER TO BE CANONISED. He is also THE ONLY NATIVE-BORN PATRON SAINT amongst all the patron saints of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England.
St David is held responsible for the adoption of the leek as a Welsh emblem. On the eve of a battle against the Saxons, he is said to have advised the Welsh soldiers to wear a leek in their caps so that they could distinguish friend from foe, and this led to a great victory. Welsh longbowmen, wearing white and green, sported leeks at the Battle of Crecy in 1346, and again at Agincourt in 1415. The Welsh word for leek is cenhinen, which is almost identical to the Welsh for daffodil, cenhinen pedr, and this similarity could explain why the daffodil is also a Welsh national emblem.
The castle is home to the town museum, where pride of place goes to THE OLDEST POSTBOX IN WALES, which dates from 1857 and was taken there after being rescued from being used as a gatepost in a garden on Merlin’s Hill.
The artist GWEN JOHN (1876–1939) was born in Victoria Place, Haverfordwest. She eventually settled in Paris, where as well as being a fine portrait painter, she became model and mistress to the sculptor Auguste Rodin.
GRUFF RHYS, lead singer with pop group the SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, was born in Haverfordwest in 1970. The Super Furry Animals are noted for having the longest ever title for a single record – LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLL-GOGERYCHYNDROBWLLANTYSILIOGOGO GOCHYNYGOFOD.
RHYS IFANS, the unkempt flatmate from the romantic comedy film Notting Hill, was born in Haverfordwest in 1968. He was briefly a member of the The Super Furry Animals (see above).
It has been said that on market day in Haverfordwest you can hear Welsh spoken on one side of the High Street, English on the other and a mixture of both in the middle. Haverfordwest sits right on an invisible but very real boundary line called the LANDSKER, which divides Welsh-speaking North Pembrokeshire from the English-speaking South – the latter long known as ‘Little England beyond Wales’.
The Landsker, which is Norse for divide, dates from the 11th century, when the Normans took control of the vast natural harbour of Milford Haven and built a chain of castles against the Welsh, from Amroth in the east to Newgale in the west. A separate Flemish, Viking and Norman culture developed in the south, and although the line was never drawn on a map, it exerted a powerful influence – marriage to someone on the other side of the line was utterly taboo. The Landsker has long since ceased to be of any real significance, but it is far from forgotten. There is still a very different feel between north and south in Pembrokeshire, and local people instinctively know when they have crossed the line …
LORD NELSON WAS describing Sir William Hamilton’s fine harbour at MILFORD HAVEN when he used these words, not the long-suffering diplomat’s wife, his own paramour, Emma Hamilton. Nelson came here to Milford Haven in 1802 to help publicise the docks, and his visit is commemorated in Nelson Quay and the Lord Nelson Hotel. Hamilton Terrace, the smart street in which the hotel resides, remembers Sir William Hamilton, on whose land Milford Haven was built.
Milford Haven is one of the biggest natural harbours in the world, a drowned river valley, 12 miles (19 km) long and in some places 2 miles (3 km) wide, and was originally made use of by scavenging Vikings. Henry II sailed from here in 1171 to consolidate the Norman invasion of Ireland, as later did King John for the same purpose. In 1782, Sir William Hamilton, who had inherited the land from his first wife Catherine Barlow, appointed his nephew Charles Greville to develop the harbour. The first clients Greville attracted were a group of Quaker whalers from Nantucket who built up a very successful whaling fleet, supplying whale oil for street lighting. The need for new ships during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars gave a boost to shipbuilding at Milford Haven, although in 1814 Greville put up his charges to such an extent that the Royal Navy decided to build its own yard across the water at Pembroke Dock.
Milford Haven went on to become one of Britain’s leading fishing ports, and a base for Atlantic convoys in both World Wars. Later on, the deep-water channel proved perfect for handling the new supertankers of the 1960s, and Milford Haven grew into THE SECOND LARGEST OIL PORT IN EUROPE, after Rotterdam. In 1973 THE LARGEST OIL-FIRED POWER STATION IN EUROPE opened at Milford Haven.
In 1996, a double blow hit the town when plans to burn an industrial fuel from Venezuela called orimulsion fell through, and the oil tanker Sea Empress ran aground at the entrance to the harbour, spilling 70,000 tons of crude oil into the sea and polluting 120 miles (193 km) of the Pembrokeshire coastline. This sparked a major debate about the risks of placing huge oil terminals in such an environmentally sensitive region, and Milford Haven’s oil business declined. Plans to build two massive Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminals at Milford Haven, to process gas brought in liquid form from the Middle East in vast gas tankers, have re-ignited the debate on the subject.
The founder of Milford Haven, Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), is buried in the graveyard of St Katharine’s Church – inside the church are a prayer-book and Bible given by Lord Nelson.
THE HISTORIC TOWN of PEMBROKE, tucked in behind unbroken medieval walls, is a handsome place, bustling streets lined with Tudor and Georgian buildings, all under the watchful eye of its mighty castle. Pembroke Castle occupies an almost impregnable site, a rocky promontory surrounded on three sides by water, and defended from the land approach to the east by a huge gatehouse with three portcullises. It remains astonishingly intact, with miles of passageways to explore and an outstanding cylindrical keep, 60 ft (18 m) high with walls 18 ft (5.5 m) thick, and topped by a stone dome. It is THE ONLY CASTLE IN BRITAIN TO BE CONSTRUCTED OVER A NATURAL CAVERN, a huge cave known as the Wogan, which used to give the castle access from the water.
Stronghold of the Norman earls, it was from here that the Earl of Pembroke, Richard de Clare, known as ‘Strongbow’, departed to invade Ireland in 1170.
The present monarch Queen Elizabeth II can trace her family back in a direct line to 28 January 1457 at Pembroke Castle, for here, on that day, was born HARRY TUDOR, FATHER OF THE ROYAL HOUSE OF TUDOR, the dynasty that laid the foundations of modern Britain. The Tudors hailed originally from Anglesey, where Harri’s grandfather Owen Tudor was born in 1385 (see Angelsey). In 1457, with the Wars of the Roses going badly for the Lancastrian side, Harri’s mother Margaret Beaufort, 13 years old and heavily pregnant, had been brought to Pembroke by her brother-in-law Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke, for safekeeping. Her husband, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, had been incarcerated by the House of York in Carmarthen Castle, where he died before his son was born.
As civil war raged on, Harry grew up safe inside the castle walls as Earl of Richmond, until the death of Henry VI and his son Edward made Harri head of the House of Lancaster, through his mother, the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. The Yorkists seized the throne and Harri Tudor had to flee to France. After 14 years he returned, landing at Mill Bay on the tip of the Dale peninsula, west of Pembroke, and marched through Wales under the banner of the Red Dragon, picking up support as he went. In 1485, he defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field and took the throne as Henry VII.
TENBY, called by the Welsh ‘Denbigh of the Fish’ to differentiate it from the Denbigh in North Wales, is the most obvious seaside resort in Pembrokeshire. Wide sandy beaches, a picturesque harbour ringed with Georgian houses, a ruined Norman castle and pale-painted, cliff-top Victorian guest-houses – all go to make up a popular holiday destination. Even Lord Nelson visited Tenby, accompanying Sir William Hamilton and his wife Emma to East Rock House in 1802.
Many writers have found inspiration in Tenby. In 1856, Mary Ann Evans began drafting her first novel, The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton, while holidaying here. It was published the following year under her pen-name GEORGE ELIOT. BEATRIX POTTER came in 1900 and stayed at Croft Terrace, where she sketched the garden pond that would feature in the soon-to-be-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
There is history in Tenby too. Narrow, winding streets and ancient buildings huddle within well-preserved 13th-century town walls. The mighty FIVE ARCHES fortified barbican gate is THE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND IN BRITAIN. The 15th-century TUDOR MERCHANT’S HOUSE, owned by the National Trust, is one of the oldest surviving townhouses in Wales, with a Flemish chimney (see St Florence, below) and some interesting early floral murals inside. St Mary’s Church is THE LARGEST PARISH CHURCH IN WALES and contains a memorial to the brilliant ROBERT RECORDE (1510–58), who was born in Tenby, the son of a merchant. He was the leading mathematician of Tudor times, THE FIRST PERSON IN BRITAIN TO ACCEPT COPERNICUS’S THEORY that the earth revolved around the sun. He invented the equals sign (=), was the first man to use plus and minus signs, discovered the square root and, to his eternal shame, introduced algebra to Britain.
The Welsh emblem of the Red Dragon is derived from the days of the Celtic King Vortigern. He sought advice from Merlin the Wizard on his continuing struggles against the Saxons, and Merlin counselled the King to dig up the earth around the fortress where he was making his stand. Vortigern did so and came across two dragons, one red and one white. The dragons were having a fight, which the red dragon won, and Merlin explained that this meant that the Celts would defeat the Saxons. And, indeed, the Saxons never did prevail in Wales. From that time on the Red Dragon has been the symbol of Wales.
Tudor Merchant’s House
The painter AUGUSTUS JOHN (1878–1961) was born in what is now the Belgrave Hotel. He grew up in Tenby with his elder sister Gwen, who was born up the road in Haverfordwest and also became a painter. The scenery around Tenby was the subject of their first pictures, and they shared their first studio together in the town, before being sent off to the Slade School of Art in London. Augustus became the most famous artist of his day, while Gwen’s reputation is only now emerging from her brother’s shadow. Neither returned to Tenby, but there is a permanent exhibition of their works at the Tenby Museum and Art Gallery on Castle Street.
IN FEBRUARY 1797, a force of 1,400 French troops landed on the rocky CARREG WASTAD POINT near Strumble Head, north of Fishguard, under the command of a 70-year-old Irish American called Colonel Tate. This was the time of the French Revolution, and the idea was to encourage a similar kind of ‘Peasants’ Revolt’ in Wales, in order to cause a diversion while the main French army invaded Ireland. The French force, however, consisted mainly of prisoners pressed into service, and rather than advancing on Fishguard with military precision, they decided to lay siege to a farmhouse about a mile inland at Tre-Howel. After a fierce struggle the farmhouse was overrun and Colonel Tate set up his headquarters in the kitchen. Scarcely had the Colonel sat down when one of his men rushed in and informed him that a large force of redcoats was approaching. Tate then decided that it might be wise to retreat to the beach at Goodwick, where they were easily subdued by the local militia under Lord Cawdor, and forced to surrender. The LAST FOREIGN INVASION OF BRITAIN was over.
It wasn’t until later that the French discovered that the army of redcoats they had seen advancing on the farm had in fact been a regiment of ladies from Fishguard, dressed in red petticoats and tall black hats. One of them, JEMIMA NICOLAS, single-handedly rounded up a dozen French stragglers with her pitchfork, for which she was rewarded an annual pension of £50 by an awe-struck government. She died in 1832 and is buried in St Mary’s churchyard, where a stone near the church door commemorates ‘the Welsh heroine who boldly marched to meet the French invaders who landed on our shores in February 1797’.
There is a memorial at Carreg Wastad Point, where the French landed, and relics of the battle, including captured weapons and the table on which the surrender was signed, are preserved at the Royal Oak pub in Fishguard’s main square.
In 1997, a 100-ft (30 m) long Last Invasion Tapestry, embroidered in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, was unveiled in Fishguard to mark the bicentenary of the invasion. It has been housed since then in St Mary’s church hall in the square, but a new home is to be found for it in the Town Hall.
Fishguard consists of three parts. GOODWICK, where in the early 20th century a new harbour and breakwater were created by the Great Western Railway, is where ferries depart for Rosslare in Ireland. It was originally hoped that Goodwick might become a major terminal for transatlantic liners from New York. Indeed, in 1909, the luxury liner Mauretania called here, but the trade eventually went to Southampton, and Goodwick had to settle for the Irish ferry business.
South across the bay is picturesque LOWER FISHGUARD, which looks like the archetypal small fishing village. Brightly coloured houses tumble down the wooded hillside, yachts and fishing boats bob up and down on the blue sea, and the little port’s film-set looks have attracted plenty of stars. The 1971 film of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, was filmed in Lower Fishguard, as was the 1956 film of Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck.
The main town of FISHGUARD sits up on the hill between Goodwick and Lower Fishguard and is grouped around the main square, where the Royal Oak can be found.
MYNYDD PRESELI, AN expanse of mysterious bare moorland and hill south-east of Fishguard, is the only substantial inland area within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. At 1,760 ft (536 m), Foel Cwmcerwyn is the highest point both of the Preseli Hills and of the National Park. The views from here are stupendous, stretching as far as Snowdonia to the north and as far as the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland to the west.
In 1922, a visiting geologist discovered, on the slopes of a Preseli peak called Carnmenyn, the source of the massive bluestones that make up Stonehenge in Wiltshire. This is the only place in Britain where the whitespotted volcanic dolerite from which the bluestones were quarried is to be found. To this day no one is quite sure how the stones were transported to the middle of Salisbury Plain. Some think they might have been carried east by great ice sheets during the last Ice Age, others prefer the notion that they were spirited there by Merlin the Wizard. In 1995, a bluestone, already cut, was found at the bottom of the river near Milford Haven, suggesting that they might have been floated down the East Cleddau River to Milford Haven, sailed around the South Wales coast, up the Severn and the Avon, finally to be placed on sledges and rollered on tree trunks across Salisbury Plain, and into position.
Mynydd Preseli is an ancient and sacred place. Everywhere there are stone circles, megalithic graves, menhirs, hill forts, hut circles – all the trappings of prehistoric existence. The most striking of these, set majestically on the hills overlooking Newport, is PENTRE IFAN, a Neolithic burial chamber consisting of a huge capstone resting on the points of three tall pillars made of the same bluestone as those at Stonehenge.
Many of the tales from the MABINOGION are associated with Mynydd Preseli. The MABINOGION is a collection of fantastical stories, myths and romantic legends from the Welsh Dark Ages, about princes and warriors and love, passed on by mouth and written down in medieval times. The stories were given the name Mabinogion by LADY CHARLOTTE GUEST, who translated them in the 1840s.
One legendary king who, according to some local people may have been connected to Mynydd Preseli, was the King, Elvis Presley. Now follow closely. St David was baptised by a Bishop of Munster called St Elvis, and there is a small chapel dedicated to him just to the east of St David’s, close to a St Elvis farm and a St Elvis cromlech. The theory goes that a family from Preseli emigrated to North America, became known as the ‘people from Preseli’, or Presleys, and named one of their descendants after their local Welsh saint, Saint Elvis. Elvis Presley. It doesn’t stretch the imagination all that far …
After all, the people of this timeless place do live by different rules. For instance, the inhabitants of the tranquil, secluded GWAUN VALLEY, which runs from the Preseli Hills down to Fishguard, still adhere to the old pre-1752 Julian calendar, which means that they celebrate New Year on 13 January.
Buried in the cemetery at Mynachlog-Ddu, a hamlet on the southern edge of Mynydd Preseli, is THOMAS REES (1806–76), the leader of the first Rebecca Riots in 1839 (see Carmarthenshire).
Nearby is a rather incongruous sign of civilisation: a fine Georgian house called Temple Druid, one of the few major works of the architect John Nash to survive in Wales.
HIGH ABOVE THE wooded Teifi valley on the border with Cardiganshire stands CILGERRAN CASTLE. This was THE FIRST STONE CASTLE BUILT BY THE WELSH, although the dramatic ruins we see today are Norman. The atmospheric paintings of Cilgerran by Richard Wilson and J.M.W. Turner lured Victorian visitors here in droves, making Cilgerran one of Wales’s first tourist attractions.
Buried somewhere in the church at Cilgerran is the original Dr Spock, THOMAS PHAER (1510–60), author of the first English book on childcare, The Boke of Children, published in 1544. A memorial plaque to him was unveiled in the church on Mothering Sunday in 1986, in the presence of the Bishop of St David’s, the President of the British Paediatric Society.
In August, coracle races are held on the Teifi at Cilgerran, and in the porch of the little church at MANORDEIFI nearby, a coracle and paddle are kept propped up against the wall for the use of stranded worshippers in the event of the Teifi overflowing. Not that such a hardship would have bothered the adventurous Charles Colby, who lies beneath a splendid monument in the church having had the misfortune, we are informed, to be killed by a tiger in India, in 1852. Manordeifi dates from the 13th century and is delightfully untouched.
The Teifi was THE LAST RIVER IN BRITAIN WHERE BEAVERS WERE SEEN, way back in the Middle Ages.
THE TREE-EMBOWERED church of ST BRYNACH’S, in the lovely NEVERN valley between Mynydd Preseli and the sea, is a wondrous museum of early Christian monuments. Set into the window sill of the nave inside is the 5th-century MAGLOCUNUS STONE, which is inscribed in both Latin and Ogham, and proved helpful in deciphering Ogham, a type of ancient script found mostly in Ireland. Nearby is the CROSS STONE, dating from the 10th century and bearing a Viking cross.
Outside, near the porch, are the VITIALANUS STONE, which has more Latin and Ogham writing, and the jewel of the collection, ST BRYNACH’S CROSS, THE FINEST CELTIC CROSS IN WALES. It is 10th-century, 13 ft (4 m) high and exquisitely carved with intricate knot-work. Every year, they say, on St Brynach’s birthday, 7 April, the first cuckoo in Wales sings from the top of the cross.
Bordering the path leading up to the church are a line of ancient yew trees, one of which bleeds a dark red resin from its trunk and is known as the ‘bleeding yew’. They say it bleeds for the sins of Wales. Or possibly for a monk who was hanged from its branches for a crime he did not commit and bid the tree bleed to proclaim his innocence.
ON THE VILLAGE green of LITTLE NEWCASTLE, south of Fishguard, there is a memorial to the original ‘Pirate of the Caribbean’, Bartholomew Roberts, known as Barti Dhu or BLACK BART, who was born here in 1682. He was second mate on a boat called the Princess when it was captured by a fellow Welshman, the pirate Hywel Davies. Rather than be thrown overboard, Roberts joined the pirate crew and quickly earned their admiration, being elected captain when Davies was killed a few weeks later.
Over the next four or five years Black Bart sailed the Spanish Main, and as far north as Newfoundland, running down and boarding treasure ships of all nations and stripping them of their cargoes. He even captured a 52-gun French man-of-war, which became his flagship, the Royal Fortune.
He was a flamboyant and hearty character, known as much for his laugh as his cruelty. He more or less ruled the Caribbean and struck fear into the hearts of the authorities there – in 1720 he even hanged the Governor of Martinique from the mainmast of the Royal Fortune.
He finally met his end in a battle with the British Royal Navy off the coast of West Africa, being killed in the first exchange of fire. His crew threw his body into the sea so that the Royal Navy wouldn’t be able to take it back to put on display in London.
Black Bart was THE FIRST PIRATE TO FLY THE SKULL AND CROSS-BONES, the flag that he himself designed.
A FEW MILES south of Fishguard, the mysterious Preseli Hills overlook an equally secluded and unfathomable place, the secretive valley of TRECWN. Here, at the end of a long, well-monitored private road, safe behind tall steel fences topped with barbed wire, and protected by guardhouses, is the old top-secret Royal Naval Armaments Depot, established in 1938. An 18-mile (29 km) narrow-gauge railway, linked to the main Fishguard to Carmarthen line, runs along the valley, branching off, herring-bone style, into 58 separate storage tunnels, each stretching back 200 ft (60 m) into the hillside and sealed with heavy steel doors.
Employing many of those made redundant when Pembroke Dock closed in 1926, the depot was used throughout the Second World War and the Cold War to store munitions and missiles that could be taken by rail to Goodwick for loading on to ships. It closed in 1998, and was bought by an Anglo-Irish company called Omega Pacific, who wanted to service jet engines in the above-ground complex and store low-grade radioactive waste in the tunnels. This plan was rejected by local people, and the site, which covers some 750 acres (304 ha), is now being turned into an industrial estate and distribution centre.
Like all secret government lairs, Trecwn has a distinctly sinister air to it. You feel all the time as though you are being watched, which you probably are, and as you drive along the narrow valley road, you almost expect to be followed by a black Mercedes, or surrounded by hard men with guns in Land Rovers. Who knows what really goes on in those tunnels deep inside the hills? Or what was left behind there.
PEMBROKESHIRE ABOUNDS WITH Celtic shrines, but there is none more evocative of simple Celtic faith than ST GOVAN’S CHAPEL, tucked into the cliffs at St Govan’s Head, south of Pembroke. The tiny chapel, 20 ft (6 m) long and 12 ft (3.6 m) wide, sits on the beach in a fold of the cliffs, and is reached by a flight of steps that counts differently when descended from when ascended – after going up and down several times, my average was 52.
St Govan may well have been Sir Gawain, one of the Knights of the Round Table, who retired to become a monk after the quest for the Holy Grail (see Cardiganshire). He was hiding in the ravine to escape from pursuers, and the rocks closed over his head until the danger had passed. In gratitude, he built the chapel on the very same spot, and it blends in so well to the cliffs that the story rings true.
The tiny bell-cote above the entrance used to hold a silver bell. The story goes that it was taken away by pirates, then rescued by mermaids and placed on a nearby rock, which now rings sweetly when struck. There is a well, reached by more steps down on to the beach below the chapel, no longer running but still with its stone hood. The chapel inside is bare except for another, smaller well.
Out of the wind, set back from the waves in its own cleft, St Govan’s remains peaceful and undisturbed – except by people trying to count the stairs …
The PEMBROKESHIRE COAST NATIONAL PARK is THE SMALLEST NATIONAL PARK IN BRITAIN and also BRITAIN’S ONLY COASTAL BASED NATIONAL PARK. Created in 1952, it covers an area of 225 sq. miles (583 sq. km) and is 180 miles (290 km) long, running from near Cardigan in the north to Tenby in the south.
SKOKHOLM ISLAND, off the Pembrokeshire coast, was BRITAIN’S FIRST OFFICIALLY DESIGNATED BIRD RESERVE. Naturalist Ronald Lockley (1903–2000) lived on the island for 12 years and established THE FIRST BIRD OBSERVATORY IN BRITAIN there, in 1933. He wrote an account of his life on Skokholm called Dream Island. Guests can stay in Lockley’s former farmhouse.
SKOMER ISLAND is THE LARGEST SEA-BIRD COLONY IN SOUTHERN BRITAIN and can be visited by boat from Martin’s Haven.
Nine miles (14.5 km) west of Skomer, 30,000 pairs of gannets make GRASSHOLM the FOURTH LARGEST GANNETRY IN THE WORLD.
ST MARGARET’S ISLAND, off the tip of Caldey Island, has THE LARGEST COLONY OF CORMORANTS IN BRITAIN.
ROSEBUSH, 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Fishguard, was THE FIRST VILLAGE IN WALES TO HAVE PIPED WATER.
PENRHOS COTTAGE, near Llangolman, 12 miles (19 km) south-east of Fishguard, is a wonderfully preserved 19th-century example of a ‘ONE-NIGHT HOUSE’. Any man who could build himself a house on his chosen spot, between sunset and dawn, was entitled to all the land that lay within a stone’s throw of the door. The cottage can be viewed by appointment.
HMS DUKE OF WELLINGTON, the LARGEST THREE-DECK MAN-OF-WAR EVER BUILT, was launched from PEMBROKE DOCK in 1852. It saw duty during the Crimean War as the flagship of Admiral Napier.
Five Royal Yachts were built at Pembroke Dock, THE ONLY ROYAL DOCKYARD IN WALES. During the Second World War, Pembroke Dock was home to THE LARGEST OPERATIONAL FLYING-BOAT BASE IN THE WORLD. Over 100 aircraft, mostly Sutherlands, were based there.
CAREW MILL, near Pembroke, is THE ONLY SURVIVING TIDAL MILL IN WALES, and one of only three remaining in Britain. There are records of a mill here in 1542, although the present mill is early 19th-century, one of the mill-wheels has been dated to 1801.
The controversial artist GRAHAM SUTHERLAND (1903–80), creator of Britain’s biggest tapestry, Christ in his Glory, in Coventry Cathedral, found inspiration in the dramatic landscapes and light of Pembrokeshire. He returned many times, particularly to the Milford Haven area, to paint some of his most famous works – his pictures of Pembrokeshire proved much more popular than his celebrated portrait of Winston Churchill, which Churchill detested so much that his wife had it burned. In 1976, a Graham Sutherland Gallery was opened in Picton Castle, the collection moving to the National Museum Wales in Cardiff for the new millennium.
Carew Mill
PICTON CASTLE was built in the 13th century for Sir John Wogan. His descendants, now called Philips, still live there today, making it one of the oldest castles in Wales to be inhabited by the same family. The castle was remodelled in the 18th century, although it retains some of the unusual plan, with no internal courtyard. Originally, seven circular towers projected from the main body of the castle, the two at the east end being connected to form a gatehouse entrance, that led under a portcullis straight through to the undercroft of the hall.
On of the Philippses, the 2nd Lord Millford, became THE ONLY COMMUNIST TO SIT IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, when he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1962.
MANORBIER CASTLE is ‘the most pleasant spot in Wales’ according to the man born there in 1146, Gerald de Barri, the revered ‘GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS’. He was the author of the definitive chronicles of late 12th-century Wales, Journey through Wales and A Description of Wales – both written in Latin. He gathered the material when he accompanied the Archbishop of Canterbury through Wales in 1188, drumming up support for the Third Crusade, and jotting down his observations. He is buried in St David’s Cathedral.
The little village of ST FLORENCE, inland from Tenby, is noted for its first-class examples of a local architectural feature called a FLEMISH CHIMNEY – a huge, tall, conical chimney often built on to the end of a small cottage or farmhouse, and probably dating from the 15th century. Although such chimneys are called Flemish, no evidence has been found of them in Flanders.
Norman feudal Lord Adam de la Roche built ROCH CASTLE high up on the top of an inaccessible volcanic outcrop, east of St David’s, in an attempt to thwart a prophecy that he would die that year by the bite of an adder. He barricaded himself in on the top floor, content to stay there until the year was out. On the last day of the fateful year he summoned a servant to bring some firewood, and as he was reaching into the basket he was bitten by an adder which had been sleeping amongst the logs.
The next morning he was found dead in front of the dying embers. The Duke of Monmouth’s mother, Charles II’s mistress LUCY WALTER, was born here. Roch Castle, still basically 13th-century, is now a hotel.
WYNFORD VAUGHAN-THOMAS (1908–87), BBC commentator and founder of Harlech Television, and baritone SIR GERAINT EVANS (1922–92) were both cremated in the crematorium at Narberth.
OAKWOOD THEME PARK, near Narbeth, is THE BIGGEST THEME PARK IN WALES. It claims BRITAIN’S FIRST ‘BEYOND VERTICAL’ FIRST DROP as well as THE FASTEST ROLLER-COASTER IN EUROPE and EUROPE’S BIGGEST WOODEN ROLLER-COASTER.
The pleasantly sheltered harbour at SOLVA, east of St David’s, is situated at the head of a deep inlet. In the 19th century many Welsh emigrants said goodbye to the Land of their Fathers here, as they sailed on a one-way trip to America for ten shillings.
DALE, a busy waterside village not far from where Harri Tudor landed at the start of his march to become Henry VII, is known as THE WINDIEST PLACE IN WALES. However, it is also THE SUNNIEST PLACE IN WALES.
In 1933, King George VI bought his daughter Elizabeth a PEMBROKESHIRE CORGI called Dookie, and corgis have now become synonymous with Queen Elizabeth II. They are thought to have been introduced to Pembrokeshire by Flemings in the 12th century, originally to herd cattle and horses.
