CASTLEMARTIN RANGE EAST

Walking with history with birds, both land and sea to match

Nowhere else in Great Britain are there such extensive exposed Carboniferous Limestone sea cliffs as those of the Castlemartin range. Rising to about 150ft, the tops in large parts level before dropping vertically into the sea, they extend some seven miles from Linney Head in the west to St Govan’s in the east. Cliffs have wonderful place names like Hanging Tar and Hobbyhorse Bay, Moody Nose, Bullslaughter Bay and Huntsman’s Leap. The huntsman, so tradition tells us, leapt the chasm to escape creditors, then, on returning to check on his feat, died from the shock. Choose a good vantage point to rest and reflect on how your walk is progressing. Spare enough time to appreciate your surroundings as you look seawards. On a clear day, Lundy Island, 33 miles distant, will be visible; prior to the end of the last Ice Age you could walk across a gently undulating plain to reach the island, before continuing on to Devon and Cornwall. Instead of cliffs there would have been scree slopes, while the caves, now much used by roosting Greater Horseshoe Bats, would have been home to early man for thousands of years. The Guillemot and Razorbill colonies do not compare in number with those at Elegug Stacks and are largely invisible from the land, though rafts of birds on the sea below between April and mid-july quickly reveals their location. Look carefully amid the rafts for Puffins; might more occur as the colonies on Skokholm and Skomer, not too far distant as the Puffin flies, continue to flourish? The sea cliffs, with their many holes and crevices, provide a rich choice of nesting and roosting sites for Choughs, while just a few wing-beats above, are maritime grasslands with a rich invertebrate fauna on which they feed. Peregrines and Ravens also nest. Small birds likely to be encountered include Meadow and Rock Pipits, Stonechats, Wheatears and hopefully Sky Larks which as elsewhere have much declined.