Coast Walking (Wales): Martins Haven to Dale 15 June 2015

We had moved to Dale, and another B&B, Allenbrook. We were unable to take a trip to Skomer because of the winds. Instead we caught the 9.55am bus from this little village to Marloes, where a connecting bus took us out to Martins Haven again, arriving about 10.20am. This gave plenty of time to walk the coast south and eastwards and around the Dale Peninsula to return to Dale.

The vegetation was flowery but limited in variety again by the acid geology. Down to the far point of the peninsula at St Ann’s Head it was basically cliff heathland. Ravens, peregrines and choughs patrolled with the herring and black-backed gulls. Rocks and walls had navelwort and black and sea spleenworts. We passed above a mile-long beach called Marloes Sands that we could access when the coast path descended to its lowest point some third of the way along. There were virtually no shells, but it was beautiful flat sand with interesting cliffs of Silurian rocks with an almost vertical dip. Back on top of the cliffs we passed plants such as Smith's pepperwort, English stonecrop, wild thyme and heath groundsel. Despite a chilly wind the day gradually warmed up and became increasingly sunny, allowing butterflies to become active. The most prevalent were painted ladies, but there were also frequent walls, common blue, red admiral, small copper and skippers.

At the end of the Sands we passed around the edge of a disused airfield which was mainly scrubby gorse-heath with western gorse, heath bedstraw and foxgloves. We passed a small isolated cluster of houses called Hookses which seemed to have no road connection, but probably there was an access way across the deserted airfield. We arrived at a small beach opposite the village of Dale on the narrowest part of the peninsula (only a kilometre from where we were staying) and we had our lunch above this pleasant view.

After a brief lunch break set out along the west side of the Dale Peninsula. A permanently wet muddy pool along here had the most interesting plants of the day – lesser water-plantain, creeping marshwort, southern marsh orchid, lesser spearwort, watercress, spike-rush, toad-rush and brook-weed. The land kept mostly level as far as St Ann’s Head and the coastguard station and former lighthouse there. The cliffs are of colourful Red Marls of the Old Red Sandstone. Much was fenced off but there was a narrow path to view a cove, Cobbler's Hole, with spectacular folding in the cliffs, well worth seeing. On the east side of the peninsula there was more agricultural influence and the vegetation changed from heath to rough grass and scrub, of little interest botanically but a haven for birds like linnet, dunnock, whitethroat and robin. One arable field contained cut-leaved dead-nettle and corn spurrey, however. We were in view of several features that would dominate the scenery over the next several days - the Milford Haven oil refinery and the tankers coming to stock up, the tall industrial chimneys of Pembroke Dock, and the daily Irish Ferry between Rosslare and Pembroke Dock.

Deep inlets meant long detours and more up-an-down walking but it only took an hour or so to reach the final headland of Dale Fort, now occupied by a Field Centre and cut off from the public. From here we had to use the quiet road (no vehicles passed us) down into Dale, past the workshops of a chainsaw sculptor, to the Boathouse Café where we got a welcome coffee (and viewed another Gothic sculpture). The roadsides had lots of spotted medick. The harbour was full of boats of all sizes and this was a major boating centre. The narrow beach is mostly shingle with a little sand but still had a good range of commoner shells, including unfortunately the first slipper limpets we had recorded in Wales.

We had to change to a new B&B, Spinnaker Reach (more boats than cars parked outside), as Allenbrook (with its noisy peacock) had already been fully booked for our second night. Both B&Bs seem equally good. Although not far apart, they are at opposite sides of Dale, which is split by a low-lying meadow, a field wide, which is regularly flooded. We ate at the only facility, the Griffin Inn, close to Spinnaker Reach, which has good fresh fish and friendly staff.