A birthday by the sea

Our only truly coastal national park turns 70 this year.

YES, WE KNOW there isn’t a Feb 29th this year, but we didn’t want to miss the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park’s 70th (or 17½th!) birthday. Confirmed on this day in 1952, it remains the UK’s only national park designated chiefly for its coastal splendour.

First proposed 22 years earlier, it comes in the first wave of protected areas created by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. On paper, it’s one of the smallest, covering only 243 square miles of south-west Wales. But don’t think of it as small. Think of it as very, very long. Extending from Poppit Sands in the north around to Amroth in the south, the park covers a crinkled ribbon of golden bays, secluded coves and blustery headlands. Nearly all of it is traced by the 186-mile Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail, which formally opens on May 16th 1970. Today, coastal buses make exploring it in chunks a breeze.

There’s Newport to Fishguard*, Porthgain to St Davids*, Marloes* and Stackpole*. Then there are Pembrokeshire’s islands, of which Ramsey, Skomer and Caldey* have summer ferries. But it’s not all seaside walks. The park also covers the fascinating Preseli Hills* and tranquil Daugleddau Estuary*.

“The park covers a crinkled ribbon of golden bays, secluded coves and blustery headlands.”

ON THE EDGE The Green Bridge of Wales, a natural sea arch, extends like a flying buttress into the waves from Pembrokeshire’s southern cliffs.

LAST LIGHT In the county’s north, the lighthouse at farflung Strumble Head guards Cardigan Bay.