Walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path – Merrion to Angle

Oh dear – where has 2019 gone? It’s over 5 months since we last managed a coast path walk, at this rate we will never finish it. It’s actually much easier to do a long-distance walk in one go as you schedule the time for it and do it regardless of weather and other distractions.

Bus schedules meant that this had to be an afternoon/evening walk, not a problem at this time of year. We called in at the Freshwater West beach cafe before we started, and shared a delicious lobster roll (no way was I paying for 2 of them!). Then we parked at Angle and caught the bus back to the point where we finished last time (actually 100m up the road – shh don’t tell anyone we missed a bit).

The first 4 miles were across fields around the northern edge of the firing range, with occasional whumps and rat-a-tats in the distance. Then we walked down to Freshwater West, revisiting the cafe for drinks and fantastic ginger cake. The tide was right out but the beach wasn’t busy, it’s one of the best surfing beaches but the sea was far too calm.

I hadn’t ever walked the path round to West Angle, only 5 miles or so, but lots of very steep downs and ups, and a warning notice about it being a challenging section. The path was more overgrown than elsewhere, being less used, but there were some lovely summer flowers.

We were flagging a bit by the end of the stretch, but after eating our emergency Snickers we decided to carry on around the coast to Angle rather than taking the shortcut up the road. We were now walking along the southern side of Milford Haven (referred to locally as the Haven, to distinguish it from the town of the same name), the huge waterway that almost cuts Pembrokeshire in two. It’s the third biggest port in the UK according to Wikipedia, but at 7pm there was no traffic.

We were pleased to reach The Old Point House, an atmospheric pub on the waterside. After a slightly odd meal (pie, chips and pink coleslaw tasting of orange) and a refreshing pint we walked the last half mile back to the car in lovely evening light. 12.5 miles and about 800ft up and down.