Around Quarry Park - our local area
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Quarry Park is right in the middle of the county of Pembrokeshire.
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2 minutes from the A40 near Canaston Bridge, the site is easily accessible but very quiet. By car the whole of Pembrokeshire is within easy reach - from St Davids in the north west, the beaches of St Brides Bay to the west and the tourist spots of Tenby and Saundersfoot to the south - all are within 40 minutes drive.
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For families we have Clerkenhill Adventure Farm just 2 minutes away, Folly Farm park and zoo, Oakwood Theme Park, Blackpool Mill Restaurant, Heatherton, Dinosaur Park, Manor Wildlife Park (previously Anna's Welsh Zoo) , Llys-y-Fran Country Park, Wild Lakes Wake and Aquapark, and Hangar Five Trampoline Park - all within 20 minutes drive.
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If you love walking, it is possible to walk to the site from the Landsker Borderlands trail, which connects with the Knights Way trail though mid Pembrokeshire, to Canaston and Minwear Woods. And our showpiece Pembrokeshire Coast Path has access points all around the county. The Preseli Hills range run east to west across the north of the county and offer stunning views on a clear day.
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Nature lovers will enjoy the nearby islands of Ramsey and Skomer, and there are many areas managed by the National Trust and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, such as Bosherston Lily Ponds, Barafundle Bay and Colby Woodland Gardens. Llysyfran Country Park is managed by Welsh Water and offers walking, fishing and nature spotting. Llysyfran has been recently updated to provide some fantastic water and land-based activities - SUP, kayaking, axe=throwing and bike trails plus many more.
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For history, the birthplace of Henry Tudor is only 30 minutes drive away at Pembroke Castle, and there are nearby castles at Carew, Manorbier, Llawhaden and Haverfordwest to name a few. Quarry Park is in the parish of Wiston which has its own motte and bailey ruin. Picton Castle and Slebech Park (on the banks of the Cleddau river) are only a stone's throw away. Slebech Park and it's has a unique place in the history of St John's Ambulance, having been a site of the original Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St John.
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The county town of Haverfordwest (10 minutes drive) has shopping, a leisure centre, sports facilities. library and cinema. Narberth (10 minutes drive) is a bastion of independent shopping with classy clothes, jewellery, art and gift shops, as well as bespoke purveyors of vintage clothes, gin and gelato. Both towns host live music, food festivals, carnivals and events throughout the year.
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Your hosts can help you decide which of the great days out might suit your tastes!
Pembrokeshire Coast Path
Opened in 1970, the Pembrokeshire Coast Path was the first National Trail in Wales.
As well as offering walkers spectacular coastal scenery and wildlife, the Trail also passes through a landscape in which humans have lived for centuries and which they have helped shape.
This is an area forged out of the activities of fishing and farming, as shown by the small, coastal settlements and the farmed landscape. These villages were not just providers of food, they also linked Pembrokeshire to what was, in the days before road and rail, the major highway of the sea.
Along the path you can see many reminders of this maritime tradition from the Neolithic cromlechs and Iron Age promontory forts to the churches and chapels of the seafaring early Celtic saints and their followers.
Place names along the path reflect the traditional cultural divide between the Welsh north and ‘Little England’ of the south, as well as some Viking influence. The Normans built massive castles, such as those at Pembroke, Tenby and Manorbier, to assert their authority. Pembrokeshire once played a key role in major events. Henry Tudor (Henry VII) was born in Pembroke Castle and, following his exile in France, landed at Mill Bay near Dale in 1485 on his way to capture the crown at the Battle of Bosworth. In the 17th century, the County was the scene of Civil War conflict with Oliver Cromwell laying siege to Pembroke Castle.
In 1797 a ragged French force made an abortive landing near Fishguard only to be repelled. Today a stone on the coast path at Carreg Wastad marks this “Last Invasion of Britain.” Fear of attack from the west led the Victorians to build a string of Napoleonic forts along the south coast and the Milford Haven waterway.
Throughout the length of the 186-mile trail small quays, lime kilns and warehouses, and sites like the brickworks at Porthgain, are reminders of a industrial tradition.
Today the Milford Haven waterway, whose natural harbour once so impressed Nelson, is still an industrial hub.
It is in these quieter, remote and wild places peopled largely by birds and visited occasionally by grey seals, that the spell of old Pembrokeshire - the ancient ‘Land of Mystery and Enchantment’ (Gwlad Hud a Lledrith) remains.
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(information courtesy of Pembrokeshire Coast national Park Authority)
The Landsker Borderlands Trail
The Landsker Borderlands Trail is a circular waymarked long distance footpath in the United Kingdom running through Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire in West Wales.
The route takes the walker away from the popular tourist locations and explores the Landsker Line between the Welsh language speaking north of Pembrokeshire and the English speaking south Pembrokeshire area - Little England beyond Wales - and includes the land to the east of the River Cleddau estuary,
Ogham stones can be seen at Llandissilio parish church; and the Norman castles sited within this region at Llawhaden and Carew Castle, as well as prehistoric remains at Llawhaden.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
Where to begin? Any landscape that has been designated a National Park must be special.
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But to be designated in 1952 as Britain’s only coastal National Park is extra special, and any trip to the Pembrokeshire coast will show you why.
The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park covers 612 square kilometres from St Dogmaels in the north to Amroth in the south but also includes the Preseli hills and The Daugleddau Estuary.
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In the south of the county, towering limestone cliffs plummet to the sea below with great swathes of golden sands mixed in such as Amroth, Tenby, and Freshwater West.
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The further north you travel the landscape becomes more hilly and rugged with volcanic headlands and flooded glacial valleys. The beaches are smaller, with the exception of a few, and more secluded like Abercastle, Cwm y Eglwys and Porthsele.
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National Geographic judged the Pembrokeshire coast as the second best coastal destination in the WORLD!
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(information courtesy of Visit Pembrokeshire)
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https://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/explore-pembrokeshire/coastal-national-park
