Walk: Whitesands to Porthgain

Key Information

Summary

A long route that clings to the cliffs on the North edge of St. Davids peninsular and takes in ancient hamlets, sublime coastline and industrial remnants. Finish off your walk with a pub lunch at The Sloop Inn in Porthgain. In the summer months a local bus service runs between St. Davids, Whitesands and Porthgain. The timetable can be found here.


Detail

Park in the small layby just before St. Davids City Golf Club. Carry on walking towards Whitesands and take the first right to double back on yourself and begin your journey North. After 200m take the first left towards St. Davids YHA. After around 400m the road forks, take the right hand path and then follow the footpath towards the coast. 


After you pass the brough of the hill you will see the remnants of an old quaker village of Maes y Mynydd which was abandoned over 100 years ago. One local legend has it that the landlord wanted this community of his land and so poisoned the well. 


Hug the cliff tops and enjoy the uninterrupted wilderness of this wild coastline before dropping down into Abereiddy, this is a popular surfing spot and the blue lagoon is a good cliff jumping location for a quick splash and dash. 


Next stop on your walk is Ynys Barri beach, a long sandy beach at low tide which is interrupted by rocky groins stretching into the sea at high tide. Be aware this beach has strong rip currents. 


Continuing the walk on to Porthgain you willl pass ruins of the industrial activity that was so important to the area historically including old quarries, railway lines complete with sleepers and crumbling red brick walls. Arriving into Porthgain gives you a real sense of the scale of the industry here.