The beach that melted Snow White’s heart
WHEN thousands of excited cinemagoers watch Kristen Stewart thunder through the surf alongside 80 muscular men on horseback in the forthcoming Snow White And The Huntsman, the question many will be asking themselves is: Just where is that wonderful beach?
Hollywood producers could have chosen to create this new version of the famous fairy tale in some exotic location in Bali or Hawaii, but instead they opted for Marloes Sands in Pembrokeshire.
The county is fast becoming the beach location of choice for many big studios, and as I walk along the wide, flat beach perfectly smoothed by the outgoing tide, it’s not difficult to see why.
Certainly Kristen, star of the Twilight series, seemed to be smitten when she shot Snow White at Marloes. According to one eyewitness, she was ‘just staring, mesmerised, across the sand’ during a break in the filming.
As well she might. In 2010, National Geographic magazine declared that Pembrokeshire was the second-best coastal destination in the world, just behind the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland.
The beach is also a stop on the new Wales Coast Path, which was officially opened earlier this month.
Nowadays, we are used to the appearance of locations being manipulated in movies, but there is no need to cheat with such a beach as this.
The Snow White crew filmed Marloes just as it is – a serene composite of sea, surf, rocks and sand under high cliffs that are softened with a flowerstrewn meadow.
The producers added just one flourish. In the film, we see Kristen and her armoured entourage, in a dramatic swirl of sand, heading for the castle of the wicked queen (played by Charlize Theron) – but the extravagant fairytale towers were added by computer to the conveniently flat-topped Gate- holm Island, which stands just yards off the headland.
In the film, Charlize plays the ruthless Queen Ravenna, who has conquered several European kingdoms and now wants to take over England. As part of her plot, she sends Huntsman Eric (Chris Hemsworth) to kill her stepdaughter, Snow White, destined to surpass her as the ‘fairest of them all’.
But Eric swaps sides and, with the help of some trusty dwarves, he and Snow White fight back. The gallop along Marloes Sands is one of the crucial scenes.
Marloes made its film debut in 1968 when The Lion In Winter was filmed here. Then, in 2010, acclaimed director Ridley Scott and Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe filmed Robin Hood at Freshwater West, another glorious Pembrokeshire beach.
Freshwater West was also used for key scenes in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, when the boy wizard and his magical chums assemble for some rest and recreation at the higgledy-piggledy Shell Cottage, which was built from scratch on the beach.
The Harry Potter film-makers were scrupulously tidy – you will find no trace that they were ever there. It’s the same at Marloes: you would never know that they had shot a blockbuster movie here.
After my walk along the beach, I spent the night at The Grove, one of the best boutique hotels in West Wales, just outside the pretty village of Narberth. It’s where Kristen Stewart and some of her co-stars stayed.
Hotels used to sell themselves on often hard-to-prove claims that Charles II or Queen Victoria once slept there.
Today, having celebrities occupy the rooms bestows much more kudos. Not that the paparazzi could easily find this hotel. The Grove is tucked away down a quiet valley – well hidden from their long lenses – and enjoys superb views of the Preseli Mountains, where they found the stones for Stonehenge.
As I savour a cocktail on the terrace, I take comfort that, like the stars, I won’t be troubled by prying eyes.