Pembrokeshire Coast Path - Day 9: Marloes to Herbrandston

Pembrokeshire Coast Path Day 9 – Marloes to Herbrandston - 8/11/19 

10 Miles – 1100 ft. gain

[If this reads like a diary entry full of personal details – you’re right! It’s my story. Some info may be helpful for your trip planning, there’s an abundance of photos because everything was so beautiful, and I believe food and drink and human connections are the secret sauce of traveling. As they say, “Take what you need and leave the rest.” Enjoy!]

Beginning today, Dany and I will spend the next 3 days walking around the Milford Haven Waterway, one of the deepest natural harbours in the world. It’s the largest energy port in Wales, a busy shipping channel, and the location of oil and LNG (liquified natural gas) companies that have supplied the UK since 1960. A Valero Energy refinery still operates here, as well as others for storage and distribution. 

Goodbye clifftops, hello infrastructure and human impact.  Danny is eager to see how civilization and footpath co-exist. I am not sure what to expect or if I will like it. 

Our Clock House hosts were happy to leave us a takeaway breakfast so that they could sleep in. At 7:00 a.m. we were delighted to find containers of yogurt, granola and raspberry jam, bananas, and veggie sausages on a hard roll (which I tucked away in my bag for lunch.) Every host we stayed with was willing to accommodate timing and food requests. [Note: a hot pot and tea service are provided in our rooms so Danny could start her day in her favorite way.]

Today’s hike started from a different point than Contour Holiday usually arranges, so Danny spent time yesterday arranging a taxi for us. The nearest service was in Broad Haven. Our driver, Derek, arrived right at 7:30 a.m. with a big smile and curiosity about these two American women early birds. He’s a bit of a walker himself and familiar with the importance of the tides at The Gann.

Derek asked if we had been to Skomer to see the puffins, and Danny recounted how the weather cancelled her planned visit. He reached into the trunk of his car and pulled out a little stuffed puffin toy and gave it to her. Such a kind gesture! In the hiking community we call an unexpected kindness “trail magic.” Derek was yet another in a steady stream of friendly, kind, genuinely interested local people that we encountered day after day.

The Pembrokeshire Coast Path crosses many small estuaries, but the two largest are at the Gann River and at Sandy Haven Creek. Our guidebook says: “There are two places at which you have to cross tidal creeks – The Gann and Sandy Haven, both of which are submerged most of the time. At The Gann you have six hours around low water (3 hours on either side of low tide timing) and four hours at Sandy Haven (2 hours on either side of low tide timing). It will take you two hours to walk between the two.” If the timing is wrong, the “high water detour,” including road walking, is three times the distance.

Well, we wanted to walk through The Gann, not around it. Months in advance, Danny consulted tide charts and solicited advice from experts, and I trusted that she would get it right. Low tide today would be at 10:15 a.m., meaning it would be safe to cross by 7:30 a.m. and be on our way towards Sandy Haven. Read a little bit more about The Gann here.

We made it across The Gann!

Looking back across Dale Roads to the village of Dale

Foreboding glimpse of the oil industry infrastructure of Milford Haven
This image will dominate the horizon for the next few days

We found ourselves on a woodsy walk that hugged the coastline, occasionally popping out to the sea view and back into the trees.  The P’shire crosses a narrow sheltered cove called Monk Haven and passes remains of fortifications old and not so old.

Through the wall to Monk Haven Beach – the wall was built as part of the Trewarran Estate 

in the 1700’s, for looks more than for protection

A watchtower also built as a “Victorian folly”

Looking back at Watch House Point, lookout and artillery structures 

dating from the First World War

Cow of the day

Lindsway Bay is another tidy little beach that can be accessed by a steep footpath coming from the village of St. Ishmael’s. It is similar to dozens of coves along the Pembrokeshire Coast, but fans of the British royal family will know that it’s the spot where the heir apparent to the throne, Charles, Prince of Wales, first touched Welsh soil in 1955. Read about royal yachts and beach picnics here.

And now a break for snails and flowers:

 

The energy complex is coming into sharper focus

Little Castle Head Beacon (Lighthouse)

The five miles from The Gann were “easy like Sunday morning” (thank you, Lionel Ritchie), overcast with a light breeze, several dogs out walking their owners, and before you could say Jiminy Cricket we were stepping from a shady fern-filled patch of woods onto the rocky shore of the Sandy Haven estuary at low tide. Danny and I took “candid” posed photos for posterity as we crossed the bridges that are usually underwater.

Notice the house in the upper left corner

A group of young people arrived carrying buckets, searching underneath the wooden bridge for limpets to use for crabbing. As we watched, a small boy and his grandmother came near, and the boy demonstrated to us how to make mud bombs. 

We could now relax and celebrate our accomplishment of overcoming the tides, and Danny asked if there was a coffee shop anywhere nearby. The woman (Ellen) said no, but her family was here on holiday and we should have a cup of tea – they were staying in the house right beside the beach. Trail magic again!.

At the house, we removed our boots as Ellen played host, setting out tea and ginger biscuits and even gluten free cakes for Danny. (Yes, thank you, we would like to use the loo while we’re here.) A charming interlude, and we departed after a half-hour so as not to overstay our welcome. We waved goodbye with a spring in our step, back on P’shire.

According to Contour Holidays' walking directions, today’s B&B was about a mile off the Path from Sandy Haven, but it was barely noon. Feeling confident that we could go further on the Path and somehow approach Herbrandston from the far side, we set our sights on Gelliswick Bay and the Pembrokeshire Yacht Club. Surely we could find advice there about a taxi service.

Goodbye, Sandy Haven Beach

The next two miles transitioned from nature to Victorian wartime structures to infrastructure of the Milford Haven oil and gas industry. Stack Rock Fort stands guard. Built in 1852, it was the primary defense of the waterway, and today it’s…for sale. Airbnb?

Rounding South Hook Point, once the location of another 19^th century fort accompanying Stack Rock, we passed high fencing enclosing storage tanks for liquified natural gas. As we walked under the LNG jetty, we left the National Park behind.

Past South Hook Point, next we walked into a residential neighborhood. Symbols for the P’shire were much harder to spot walking along a street than on the clifftops. There are few fingerposts dedicated to the Path. The circular beer-coaster-sized signs were rare. Instead, we quickly learned to keep an eye out for an acorn symbol printed on stickers the size of a credit card, maybe stuck to a street sign or stop sign, maybe stuck on the corner of a building, often far enough apart to make you doubt your direction. New challenges.

As we drew near to the yacht club, we sat down on the curb beside a house to eat lunch. Just as we were finishing up, the owner arrived and invited us to eat at his garden picnic table and have tea. We politely declined, with another mental note of how hospitable the Welsh have been to us.

At the yacht club, we faced the problem-solving of how to get to our B&B. I asked a fellow in the parking lot if he was an employee or could he tell me how far the distance was to Herbrandston and if it was safe to walk on the road.  He (Alan) was a customer and kindly said that he lived near the B&B, knew the owner, and offered to drive us there. Trail magic three times in one day!

 Our trail angels (Derek, Ellen and Alan) were my favorite part of Day 9.

We arrived at Fields Lodge at 1:30 p.m. (check-in was 4:00 p.m.) We left our packs and poles by the door and walked towards the village. Herbrandston is a little bedroom community to Milford Haven. Interesting fact: It is one of only 14 doubly “Thankful Villages” in the UK, meaning its residents suffered no fatalities of service personnel during either World World I or World War II. Danny and I went exploring in different directions.

St. Mary's Church

I had no difficulty finding the Taberna Pub & Inn

An interesting selection of ciders - I'll have a pint of Farmer's Pride

Sated with cider and ready to relax, I returned to Fields Lodge at around 3:00 p.m., now open for check-in. Absolutely charming at every turn, a comfortable common room and cute breakfast room, and our accommodation was the best yet: the upstairs suite called Stepping Stones featuring a bedroom with twin beds, a dressing room with tea making facilities, and an enormous bathroom with luxurious robes and thick towels. (Yes, we hung our clothes everywhere, even on the windowsills.) Fields Lodge was my favorite B&B in Wales.

I lounged on a swing in the garden, journal writing, birds singing, flowers blooming all around, my bare feet soothed by the thick green grass. 

 Because there were no restaurants in walking distance, we had arranged in advance for supper to be provided at the B&B. The charcuterie board was sublime (and enough for sandwiches for tomorrow!)

 

I'm still unsure how this urban hiking experience will go, but it will be unique!

“It’s important to remember that we all have magic inside us.” ~J.K. Rowling