Walking the Wales Coast Path - Pembrokeshire - Martin's Haven to Broad Haven

Pembrokeshire Coast PathWalesWales Coast PathWCP - CarmarthenshireThe Great Outdoors

12 May

My alarm went off bright and early on Tuesday, and despite feeling like I could do with a few more hours sleep, I jumped out of bed. The excitement of the day ahead spurring me on. As I drove to Pembrokeshire I was willing the time to pass quicker, so I could be reunited once again with my beloved coastal path. The prospect of an entire day of views that my eyes had never seen before was too exciting to contain during an hour and a half’s drive.

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As I arrived in Broad Haven, a place I’d never visited before, I was greeted by beautiful sunshine and a pretty high tide beach full of surfers starting their day in their favourite way. I couldn’t help but smile as I too was starting my day in my favourite way; walking.

I met my friend Nia in the car park and we left my car behind to greet us at the finish line, and drove in her car to the starting point of our walk; Marloes sands.

We may have timed our arrival perfectly to ensure we could pop into the Runwayskiln to stock up on treats before we started out on our long day of hiking. Their breakfast roll giving us a much needed energy boost to start us on our way, and I may have got myself a double chocolate and raspberry brownie to stow away for the finish line. This timing actually worked out even better than we’d planned, as whilst we ordered and waited for our food it began to rain, but by the time we set out on our walk, in full waterproofs, the rain had all but finished, and we were treated to a perfect sunny day for the remainder of our walk.

We started out cutting off the corenr of the coast round from Marloes to Martin’s Haven, as we had both walked that stunning stretch before. We rejoined the path just along from West Hook Farm, and started the long, but beautiful walk along the coast to Broad Haven.

I am even more convinced that May is the perfect time to walk the Pembrokeshire section of the Wales Coast Path. The riot of colour from all of the flowers lining the path was quite possibly the closest thing to heaven I’ve ever seen. It was truly breathtaking. Add to that, the fact that the path was truly coastal, and we had views of stunning cliffs, and hidden coves the whole way, was incredible.

We arrived at St Bride’s Bay spot on lunchtime, and got to enjoy the lovely calming views as we ate and rested. We were almost at the halfway point here, but we weren’t feeling too daunted just yet by the remaining walk that lay ahead of us.

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As we set off again for the second half of our walk the stunning views continued on, and didn’t let up for a minute. We even managed to spot a couple of seals in the water too. After a while Broad Haven came into view, and a mix of relief and overwhelm flooded my body. We were truly in the home stretch, but there were so many cliffs in between us and that finish line. The up and down nature of the Pembrokeshire coast was starting to tire us out truth be told, and add to that the oddest amount of flies, permanently swarming around us and feeling like something akin to a biblical plague, that last leg of the walk definitely felt tough. I actually put on my covid mask at one point it was that bad, and each person we passed couldn’t help but marvel at the bizarre amount of flies, at least reassuring us we weren’t exaggerating! But even that wasn’t enough to ruin our day, and I would still happily endure the flies for those views.

The flowers lining the path were so pretty.

On the other side of the relentless flies, we had the most wonderful surprise, and found ourselves suddenly in the most beautiful cliff top woodland just filled to the brim with bluebells, with a view of the sea between the trees. It was just dreamy. Nia did take this moment to inform me that she thought this might be the location from “The Pembrokeshire Murders” but thankfully it was so pretty in the woods it didn’t dampen our enjoyment too much.

It wasn’t long then until we finally found ourselves in Little Haven. We could see Broad haven just round the corner, but the tide was coming in quickly and we weren’t confident we could walk around along the beach. Instead we opted to stick to the coastal path which took us up what felt like the steepest hill in the world, and then eventually down into Broad Haven. That last little stretch felt like an eternity after a long day of walking, and that chocolate brownie was calling my name. We sat on the beach at Broad Haven and enjoyed our well earned treats, and marvelled at the 11.5 miles we had just walked.

All in all it was an another amazing day walking the Wales Coast Path, and that early morning excitement was definitely warranted. It also felt great to arrive home and be able to tick off not one, but two sections in my Pembrokeshire Passport, as I have now completed the stretch from Martin’s Haven to St Brides, and St Bride’s to Broad Haven. My map looks a little more complete after this walk, but there is still so much to explore and I can not wait!