Newghav two

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I travelled from Haverfordwest to Newgale on a warm, overcast a breezy summer day.

The first section through Haverfordwest is fairly non eventful walking along pedestrianised areas, or on pavements alongside road. At the town boundary, indicated by a "Welcome to Haverfordwest" style sign, the route forks right along Cuckoo lane on a quiet single track lane to reach Cuckoo lodge.

This is the first off road section on a well maintained diversion around the farm that's clearly signed and has new modern metal gates. The route returns back to the farm track and continues until a further off-road right of way appears ahead of you. When I walked the route I used the farmers gate to cross a field boundary, despite the presence of waymarking and a metal right of way gate 20 metres to the left. Unfortunately the other side of the gate had been fenced off with barbed wire so was not passable.

I haven't reported this to Pembrokeshire County Council as the farmers gate made the route accessible. It was just a shame that 2 metal gates will go to waste at the cost of ~£500 a gate to install.

The off road section ends at Sutton Lodge and the road goes into the hamlet and then circles the buildings before exiting the settlement.

On this junction, you will see a green bus shelter just off route to you right. It is definitely worth the detour! It's immaculately presented, well decorated and has a hanging basket on the front. I assume it's the pride of the village because the best was yet to come. As I approached there was a large glass fronted book case full of books. It's great to see communities taking such pride in shared public areas.

Retracing my steps, I headed north along the road and the next place of interest was Bethal Baptist church. Although about 1/2 mile from Sutton, it still come under this area geographically. The chapel was uninspiring and it took a while to realise it was a chapel and not just a country farm house. I know little about the Baptists, but assume modesty is a key element. One stand out highlight was what looked like an impressive brown 20 foot cenotaph erected within the graveyard,

The next section heading into Nolton Cross involved a gradual climb along the road for about 10 to 15 minutes. The gradient wasn't steep (5-10%?), but it felt it went on forever. I was in the heart of a farming community with diary being it's purpose. All adjacent fields were full of diary cows, or had signs of them with "Bull Keep Out" signs. The other traffic I saw during this time were tractors passing by.

At Nolton Cross, this was the first place I could stop for a break, so I visited the Farm Shop on the route. I recommend the milk or milkshakes on sale there. After the refreshments, I followed the road and descended down into Nolton Haven where there is a stunning sandy beach, a pub, toilets and on my walk, a mobile ice cream van.

After another stop and swim in the sea, I dried off, changed and continued my walk off road on the Welsh National Coastpath over to Newgale. As mentioned in the survey, if you are on wheels, you can avoid this section of the coastpath and follow the road up a steep hill out of Nolton Haven that will eventually lead into Newgale. It's actually slightly shorter by road, but not as scenic.

The coastpath is very steep in both directions. Before this point I had only walked quite low gradient hills. There are two sizeable "up and downs" along the route that also includes steps. However it's worth the effort as you have far reaching views across St Brides bay - from Skomer Island on the left and Ramsey island on the right. The views across Newgale sands are also really impressive.

In one of the cwms (valleys) you will see the remains of a brick tower. This is a listed building and the remains of Trefan/Trefane colliery that closed in 1906.

The path joins a road eventually and runs along the seafront to your final destination. It was a wonderful walk and gave me the chance to explore some of the hidden part of Pembrokeshire away from the tourist hotspots. I would highly recommend it!.

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