Pembrokeshire Coast
The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is
Britain's only truly coastal national park. It's a spectacular
landscape of rugged cliffs, sandy beaches, wooded estuaries and
wild inland hills, and a place of sanctuary for wildlife. The
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is the only one in the UK with
offshore islands.
People
Today, 24,000 people live in this National Park. People have
shaped the landscape over the centuries, leaving their mark in
tombs and castles, crosses and cottages, quarries and quays. The
Park includes most of Pembrokeshire's coastal strip, the Daugleddau
Estuary and the Preseli Hills and skirts the major oil terminals at
Milford Haven. The influence of the sea affects land use far inland
and plays a major part in the area’s economy and culture.
Welsh is the main language of everyday life for many communities
in the northern part of the Park, and supports a distinctive
culture. Throughout the area, there are links with the ancient
stories of the Mabinogi and the early Celtic saints.
Landscape
The Park boundary only extends to the mean low water mark. But
it's here that you'll see it at its most spectacular.
In the north, wooded valleys cut through wide tracts of
exposed moorland on mountains like Carningli in the Preseli
range.
In the west, the broad sweep of St Brides Bay dominates the
landscape between the islands of Ramsey in the north and Skomer in
the south. Venture to the southern coast and you'll discover a
limestone plateau, the cliffs of the Castlemartin Peninsula with
its military installations, the steep-sided wooded valleys inland
and the tourist resorts of Tenby and Saundersfoot.
Between the western and southern areas of the National Park lies
the Milford Haven Waterway. Here the tranquil wooded reaches of the
Daugleddau estuary and Carew and Cresswell rivers, and the
sheltered bays downstream, feed into one of the finest natural deep
water harbours in the world.
Wildlife
Habitats within the Park vary from estuary mudflats and rocky
shores to ancient woodland, lowland heath and upland moor.
Pembrokeshire and its islands are unrivalled for seabirds, while
Ramsey Island has southern Britain’s largest population of grey
seals. Porpoises and one of the UK’s few schools of bottle-nosed
dolphins are regular sights off the coast.
Inland there are rare plants and insects and the Park’s website
lists a top 20 of best sites to see wildlife.
Protected sites
The National Park has many sites and areas which are of national
or international conservation significance, including six National
Nature Reserves. Skomer Marine Nature Reserve is the only MNR in
Wales. You can visit the island, which has the some of the world’s
largest colonies of Manx shearwaters and gannets
Visiting the Park
The Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail is the main way that
people get to know the special features of the National Park . The
Park Authority manages its entire length of 300km and there are
special public transport services to collect walkers and drop them
off at various points along the route.