[9-8-1985]

Foto: St. David's Cathedral.

Uit de reisbeschrijving van Frames National:

The day is spent touring West Wales, a land of sweeping hills and pleasant valleys, with wide stretches of sandy beaches around Cardigan Bay, an area often referred to as ‘little England beyond Wales'.

Our first visit is but a few miles south of Carmarthen at the village of Laugharne, home for many years of the great Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas, who now lies in the churchyard. We take time to see his Boathouse, now a museum with much of his memorabilia.

From Laugharne we return to the main road and travel via St. Clears to Tenby, said by Daniel Defoe to be ‘the most agreeable town on all the South coast of Wales'. The heart of the town is set on a headland surrounded by four sandy beaches and houses and shops are packed tightly within the medieval town walls. St. Catherine’s Rock, just offshore, is capped by a fort built in 1869 while Caldey Island 2½ miles out at sea is known for the perfumes produced by the monks of the modern monastery.

We continue through the village of Lamphey to Pembroke whose Norman Castle is one of the best preserved in Britain. Pembroke is the centre of ‘Little England’ so called because the English settled there after the Norman Conquest, gave their English names to the towns and built fortifications to keep out the Welsh!
Pembroke was the birthplace of Henry Tudor who became Henry VII and founded the House of Tudor. Nearby Pembroke Dock was the site for the building of over 250 warships, now the deep waters here and at Milford Haven are filled with giant oil tankers going to and from the refineries lining the banks of the estuary.

Making now for the extreme western coast of Wales we pass through Haverfordwest (a country in its own right from 1545 to 1921) with another of the chain of Norman castles built by the English, and soon reach St. Davids. St Davids really is a village but it ranks as a city because of its beautiful Cathedral — the site is desolate and it seems strange that such a building as the Cathedral should be placed here — the answer is that the origins of the Cathedral were in a monastic foundation built just because of its secluded site. The bleakness of its exterior is made up for with the delights of the interior especially the splendid Rood Screen dating from the 14th century. To the west of the Cathedral lie the ruins of the Bishop’s Palace.

Our route now follows the coast road to Fishguard, best known as the rail terminal for the ferry services to Southern Ireland. The town itself is very attractive, situated on a sweeping bay and with tree lined streets. French troops landed nearby in 1797 to rouse the population against George III, the attack ended in fiasco, the invaders meekly lined up on the beach and laid down their arms after, it is said, they mistook Welsh women in traditional red cloaks for British soldiers. Continuing along the coast we next see Cardigan, situated at the estuary of the Teifi, once a busy port but now best known for the excellent salmon and sea-trout fishing nearby, here, as at Carmarthen coracles are still used for catching salmon.

Today’s tour ends with a run along the valley of the Teifi, through Newcastle Emlyn, a small market town with one long main street overlooking the beautiful slopes across the river, and on to Carmarthen for the night.

NOTE — This day’s itinerary may be operated in reverse travelling via Cardigan to St. David’s then to Tenby and Laugharne.

Day’s mileage 143