Pembrokeshire Coast Path, Wales: Arrival at St. Dogmaels

Pembrokeshire Coast Path:  Planning and Arrival at St. Dogmaels – 8/2/19

“What do you think of hiking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path with me?” Danny Bernstein is always doing something challenging and interesting. I said yes and then looked it up.

The Pembrokeshire Coast Path was established in 1970 as a National Trail in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. It is 186 miles (300 km) long with a total of 35,000 feet of ascent and descent. It’s part of the Wales Coast Path (870 miles along the entire coastline if you’ve got the time). Fun fact: the International Appalachian Trail (IAT) runs concurrently with the P'shire through Pembrokeshire.

The National Trails website is rightly boastful of this magnificent trail. “The Pembrokeshire Coast Path twists and turns its way…along the most breathtaking coastline in Britain. It covers almost every kind of maritime landscape from rugged cliff tops and sheltered coves to wide-open beaches and winding estuaries.” It is also a walk through human history, passing castles, forts and chapels of the past and bustling ports, waterways, oil and natural gas infrastructure of the present day. [Disclaimer: we did not check out every structure and artifact or we would still be there.]

So Danny and I took a walk in the summer of 2019.

We contracted with Contour Holidays, a walking holiday planning company that Danny has used for other UK treks. We chose the number of days for our trip and Contour arranged our accommodations, daily luggage transfer, and taxi transportation to/from the trail if our lodging was more than one mile from the route. We planned 13 days of walking with an off day at the half-way mark. This was my first experience with B&B comfort trekking and hereafter it will be hard to go back to schlepping my own gear.

(This website shows a “south to north” map and stages for a 15-day hike.) 

(This website has a fantastic interactive map to help plan your own hikes.)
(This website calculates distances between points - wish I'd had this one when we hiked!)

Like the AT in the U.S., hiking northbound is the more traditional way to experience the P’shire. Most hikers start in the more populated and less strenuous south and build up to the more rural, wild and steeper climbs of the north.  We chose the alternative, starting from St. Dogmaels in the north and hiking south to Amroth, tackling the steepest and longest sections early.

Planes, trains and automobiles: we flew separately to London, took a train together from Paddington Station to Whitland, Wales, then a half-hour taxi ride to the village of St Dogmaels.

Paddington Station

These young women were traveling by train to a wedding on the coast. Time for breakfast!

Arriving at St. Dogmaels, Argo Villa was our first B&B, which set a high bar of comparison with a comfortable room, big bathroom, and convenient location.  We were Gill and Antosh’s only guests. (If you’re going, they cater to walkers and cyclists.)

With just a little time to explore, Danny and I walked to the ruins of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Dogmaels, built in the 12^th century on the site of a pre-Norman monastery.

St. Thomas’s Church is an active parish, completed in 1852 with materials from the ruins

500-year-old yew tree beside St. Thomas’s

St. Dogmael

On our walk through the village we saw the town’s World War I memorial, which I learned are prevalent in the small and large towns of the Welsh Coast and one of Danny’s particular areas of interest. She was ever on the lookout for them along our journey and delighted in each one she found.

Even with our itinerary, guidebooks and maps, Danny and I knew that at the end of each day, physically locating the next day’s starting point is an important task. Gill, our B&B host, walked us to the stone plaque that commemorates the beginning of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

One of my particular areas of interest was dinner and adult beverages at the end of each day. We learned that reservations were necessary just about everywhere. August is holiday time in the UK and the coastal towns were bustling. We were on our own tonight, but going forward, asking our upcoming B&B hosts to make dinner reservations for us became part of that daily routine.

Dinner at The Ferry Inn

Glamorgan crumble salad

Our first toast of the adventure – We’re here! Cheers!

When I boarded my flight to London I realized that my trail shoe had been chewed on by a certain grand-dog and was near to breaking. A bit of panic, then a needle and thread to pull the shredded lace through the eyelet, then a square knot (“right over left and left over right makes a square knot tidy and tight”). Ready to hit the trail!

“When you see someone putting on her Big Boots you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” ~Winnie-the-Pooh