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WALK 6

The Dale Peninsula

Start/finish	Dale (SM 811 058)
Distance	6½ miles (10.5km)
Total Ascent	1085ft (330m)
Time	3¼hr
Terrain	Coastal path
Maps	Explorer OL36 South Pembrokeshire
Refreshments	The Boathouse Café and Griffin Inn at Dale
Toilets	By car park at Dale
Public transport	Seasonal bus service to Dale
Parking	Car park at Dale

The Dale peninsula guards the entrance to Milford Haven and, with its counterpart across the channel – the Angle peninsula – has played an important strategic defensive role throughout history.

The path around St Ann’s Head, south of Dale, follows a long, convoluted stretch of coast, with constantly changing views as it turns from the Haven towards the open sea. The way back is across a narrow neck of sunken ground, a trench cut by meltwater released at the end of the last glacial period.

Follow the promenade down to the village, keeping left past the Griffin Inn to leave along a wooded lane rising along the coast towards Dale Fort Field Centre. When the trees clear towards the far end, look for the Coast Path leaving through a gate on the right. It follows the line of a prehistoric ditch and bank that defended a settlement on the point. Further back lie 19th-century defences, another ditch and wall to protect the landward side of a gun fort, one of several built under Prime Minister Palmerston. It now houses a field studies centre.

Dale

Dale Fort is part of a complex series of defences built around the middle of the 19th century in anticipation of an invasion attempt by Napoleon. At first sight it might seem that there was little need for such a show of force, with 15 separate forts and gun batteries being positioned along the Milford Haven waterway. Its importance, however, derived from the Haven being one of the finest deepwater harbours in the world and, perhaps more significantly, the gateway to Britain’s naval dockyards at Pembroke Dock. Napoleon prudently stayed away, and the Victorian guns were never fired in anger, but the batteries were brought back into use during World War II, when Pembroke Dock was again a target for enemy attack.

Carry on above the sloping bracken-clad cliffs behind Castlebeach Bay, the path shortly dropping into one of the several deep-cleft valleys that drain the headland. As you climb away at the far side of the stony beach, look for a lime kiln almost hidden beneath the undergrowth. Continue around the edge of successive fields, eventually passing the tall navigation beacon on Watwick Point.

The deepwater channel of the Haven made it an ideal harbour to receive the increasingly massive oil tankers that were being developed during the 1960s. During its industrial heyday several terminals, oil refineries and an overland pipeline to Esso’s main refinery at Llandarcy were built, as well as an oil-fired power station. However, the approach to the narrow estuary is difficult, and for colossal craft – that might take over a mile to stop – through passage requires both skill and accurate navigation. The soaring beacons on Watwick and West Blockhouse points help guide vessels into the inlet, but they failed to prevent the area’s worst shipping disaster, when in February 1996 the tanker Sea Empress ran aground, spilling 72,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea.

Following the field perimeter beyond, watch for the path swinging left behind Watwick Bay. The main path dips only gently above its head, but a lower path descends to a small beach, exposed at low water. Further on, at West Blockhouse Point, the path passes behind another of Palmerston’s forts, this one now owned by the Landmark Trust and available for rent as a holiday cottage with a difference. Beside it stand a trio of navigation markers, while to the right of the ongoing path are the concrete wells of the Napoleonic gun emplacements.

West Blockhouse Point

The view in front is now to St Ann’s Head, on which stands a row of cottages built to accommodate the staff manning the station, a walled vegetable garden, and three lighthouses that at various times have blinked their warnings to passing mariners. Rounding the head of Mill Bay the path once more dips to the sea, passing the ruined walls of an old mill, fed from a pond formed by damming the stream above.

HENRY TUDOR

After 14 years in exile in Brittany, Henry Tudor landed at Mill Bay on 7 August 1485 with a small band of followers. Marching to England, he gathered supporters for his cause along the way and only two weeks later defeated the armies of Richard III at Bosworth Field. Crowned Henry VII, he founded the Tudor dynasty, which would last until the death of Elizabeth I in 1603.

Climb away beyond, working your way round at the field edge to St Ann’s Head. Leaving the cliffs below the cottages pass the walled garden and continue across open grassland towards the buildings overlooking the point, then follow the boundary fence right to a kissing gate. However, before following the track away from the station, take the cul-de-sac path opposite, which overlooks Cobblers Hole, a particularly striking example of double folding in the strata of the cliffs.

Always a prominent landmark for mariners, St Ann’s Head was once the site of a chapel, said to have been built by Henry Tudor in gratitude for his safe landfall. The first official warning beacon here was coal-fired and erected in the mid 17th century. But it did not operate for long, and it was 1714 before a formal light was installed. Two lighthouses were built, which could be aligned to determine position at sea. The rear light was subsequently converted into the coastguard station, while the other was re-sited further from the cliff in 1841 because of erosion, and still provides a mark for shipping. When the lights were eventually converted to automatic operation, St Ann’s became the control centre for all the installations along the Pembrokeshire coast, with a helicopter pad being added for use by the servicing crew.

Leaving along the driveway, return to the coast through a gate and continue above the cliffs. Now exposed to the full fury of winter gales, the lack of lush vegetation on this side of the headland is a sharp contrast to that facing Milford Haven. Spring sees the bare grass and earthen wall banks burst into colour with hardy clifftop flowers such as spring squill, sea campion and thrift growing so profusely as to form a carpet in places. The walking is now easy, with dramatic views along the rugged sandstone cliffs, littered with boulders and shattered rocks at their feet. Further on, traces of broken bricks and rubble are relics of HMS Harrier. Formerly a wartime establishment, HMS Harrier continued as a radar and meteorological training school until closure in 1960. Beyond, the path eventually drops to low sandy cliffs behind Westdale Bay that block the western end of a glacial meltwater valley that almost severs the Dale peninsula from the rest of Pembrokeshire. Facing directly towards the Atlantic, a succession of fine waves often roll against the beach, attracting surfers as well as families who just come to enjoy the sand.

Westdale Bay