Wild west fun
central Cross Square watching the world go by.
Britain’s smallest city is a busy place in the height of summer. The population of less than 2,000 swells when four million tourists pile into Pembrokeshire for the holidays.
St Davids is one of those muchloved destinations. Once visited, you’ll want to go back every year. Its colourful streets, Welsh curiosity shops, boutiques, art galleries, individual food stores, cosy pubs and independent restaurants are adorable.
On Thursdays, local craftspeople and food producers set up stalls at the market cross.
I bought a framed print of neighbouring Whitesands Bay, a happy reminder of our days spent falling off bodyboards in the waves there.
Popular with surfers and sandcastle makers, there’s also a spirit-lifting walk from Whitesands, over the imposing hill of Carn Llidi to the rocky headland of St Davids Head. Following the path which hugs the cliff, we encountered the most wonderful surprise along the way – wild ponies, some white, shiny
black, chocolate and fudge colour, grazing peacefully in the sunshine.
After a windy scramble on the rocks at the headland, we did the whole walk in reverse, waving hello again to our four-legged friends as we passed.
The next day we drove five miles north to Abereiddi for another memorable sight.
The Blue Lagoon is a former slate quarry, active until 1910 before being abandoned and flooded. The dark grey slate and high mineral content creates its vivid blue colour and it is a dramatic spot for kayaking, coasteering and diving.
The Shed Bistro just north of here at Porthgain is well worth the extra journey for their amazing fish and chips.
If you head south of St Davids, there’s even more varied coastline to discover and we spent a day going from beach to beach. Starting at Little Haven, a sandy and rocky beach, it has a smooth pathway leading up to The Point, a handy viewing platform over St Brides Bay.
Second stop was Broad Haven, which, when the tide goes out, is very wide, with cliffs on both sides.
After a quick stop at Nolton Haven, a small, peaceful bay bookended by green cliffs, it was on to the enormous Newgale, another surfers’ paradise, with almost two miles of sand backed by a huge pebble bank, which formed after a big storm in 1859.
We finished off with a tranquil stroll around beautiful Solva with its harbour full of boats and lush cliff sides. At low tide the inlet is almost dry apart from a narrow stream running down the middle.
That morning we’d phoned ahead an order from Mrs Will the Fish in Solva. On the journey back, we called in to collect it – from an unassuming bungalow named Parc Benny, opposite the Memorial Hall, paying a very reasonable £20 for freshly dressed crab, prawns and crevettes for two.
More tasty treats were in store on our final day at Dr Beynon’s Bug Farm. A brilliant little attraction for kids, we took a tour of the British bug house, tropical bug zoo, bug museum and bug trails, then egged each other on to order the gourmet bug burgers at on-site restaurant the Bug Kitchen. Made with a blend of textured insects and plant-based protein with mealworms, crickets and grasshoppers, they were actually quite palatable.
Insects are the sustainable food of the future, apparently, so we are now fully prepared.
So what are the takeaways from our
We egged each other on to order the restaurant’s gourmet bug burgers
week in the wild west of Wales? There was dramatic scenery, daring delicacies and that moment of divine intervention in the cathedral with the ball... I think that might have been an order from St David himself.