Imagine you’re a seagull and swoop down to YHA Manorbier using the satellite view on Google Earth. This is the best way to appreciate in advance of arrival the hostel’s location, perched above the craggy Pembrokeshire coast. It’s surrounded by wildflower meadows, and only a few minutes’ walk from two beautiful beaches: Church Doors, with its dramatic rock arches, and — if you scramble through a tunnel at low tide — Skrinkle Haven, an empty expanse of fine sand where you might spot a seal bobbing offshore.
Until this trip my main memories of life under canvas were of uncomfortable nights spent on bumpy ground in cramped conditions, my clothes jumbled and wet and me in a bad mood. For this late July holiday I decided to book a bell tent in the grounds of the hostel, instead of a room, because I thought our kids might enjoy camping … and they did. But — to my surprise — I loved it too.
Our tent was spacious — five metres in diameter — and the bunting and fairy lights gave it the air of a circus top. There were proper bed platforms — a double and three singles — with comfortable mattresses and 15 tog duvets, and a solar powered central light. Outside was a picnic table and a metal fire pit. There was a small wood-burner, but we didn’t need it.
Each morning, having dropped off listening to the owls and slept soundly in the fresh air, I was woken by gentle mooing in the next field. Leaving our tent, I looked across the sea to Caldey Island, then walked down through the meadowsweet and rosebay willowherb to Church Doors, to watch the cormorants fishing. Back at camp my family was stirring; we prepared breakfast in the large, well-equipped kitchen and ate it outdoors. The showers were great; there were even hairdriers.
Usually I’m keen to get out and explore but this time I enjoyed just hanging out at the campsite, which felt like a friendly Iron Age village. Our daughter made friends on the very first morning and from then on was usually to be found with them: flying a kite, blowing bubbles, or taking part in a meandering three-hour-long game of football. Meanwhile our son and I enjoyed reading on the bean bags that were another feature of our tent.
We didn’t have far to go for provisions, because just beyond the hostel car park there was an honesty box vegetable shop where you could also buy local eggs, and, a mile away in the village, a well-stocked Nisa shop. The hostel itself is housed in triangular-roofed old Ministry of Defence buildings and has a nice cafe and bar called Skrinkle; one evening there was even live music.
When we could summon the energy to leave this extremely relaxing place, we took walks along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Half an hour away we found Presipe, another great beach, with a backdrop of folded purple cliffs and a maze of strange sandstone outcrops encrusted with colonies of mussels. A further half hour along a rather precipitous section of path and we arrived at Manorbier beach. It’s west facing, so perfect for a sundowner, and you can go surfing or rock pooling or visit an ancient cromlech (megalithic tomb) or a restored medieval dovecote (did you know that pigeon dung was once mixed with watercress and used as a cure for baldness?). But the highlight is exploring the splendid Norman castle that commands the bay. It has a cafe inside the bailey.
One day we ventured slightly further afield, to Stackpole, a huge estate owned by the National Trust. From Stackpole Quay we walked to Barafundle Bay and Broad Haven South (not the Broad Haven with the YHA hostel, that’s twenty miles away). On Stackpole Head we were chuffed to see choughs, a red-legged, red-billed bird of the corvid family so rare that it didn’t feature in our bird book. The circular route took us back via Bosherston Lily Ponds with their swans and elegant eight-arched bridge where we met a National Trust employee who was on the lookout for otters. She told us the story of Wally the Walrus, who hit the headlines in March 2021 after first being spotted off Broad Haven South, then spending two months in the sea around Tenby before heading back towards the Arctic.
We also visited Tenby, five miles from Manorbier. Its Welsh name, Dinbych-y-Pysgod, means Little Fortress of the Fish. A lovely Georgian/Victorian resort, it has distinctive brightly-painted terraces of houses and excellent beaches. During the summer season the centre is pedestrianised during the daytime, and there are cafe and pub tables everywhere; we got chips from Fecci’s. We especially liked the long South Beach, where we watched a small tractor trundling to the aid of a bigger tractor that had got stuck trying to pull an ice cream cabin back up the beach as the tide rushed in.
Tenby has an interesting small museum and art gallery. A short walk further up Castle Hill, by the Prince Albert memorial, is a picnic spot with panoramic views of the harbour. The town has an unusual claim to fame, because it was here in 1510 that the mathematician Robert Recorde, inventor of the equals ( = ) sign, was born. There is a memorial to him in St Mary’s Church.
On the way home we visited the picturesque village of Laugharne, on the estuary of the River Tâf where it flows into Carmarthen Bay.
We went to the castle, the writing shed where Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood, and the nearby converted boathouse where he lived with his family. In the museum there a series of letters from former US President Jimmy Carter tell the story of how he argued, successfully, that Thomas should be commemorated by a memorial in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. Installed in 1982, the stone is carved with the beautiful lines: “Time held me green and dying/Though I sang in my chains like the sea”.
Useful information
Getting there: there is a train station on the branch line in Manorbier, but hostel staff recommend instead getting a bus from Tenby station as the bus stop is much nearer to the hostel — about 10 minutes’ walk — than the train station is.
Access: YHA Manorbier can provide accommodation for wheelchair users, with two accessible toilets with wheel-in showers and bedrooms with level access. For more information see the hostel’s Access Statement on the booking page. Church Doors/Skrinkle Haven and Presipe can only be reached via steep steps. Manorbier, Freshwater East, Freshwater West, and Tenby South Beach are more accessible for people with limited mobility or who have children in pushchairs. There is also a beach wheelchairs scheme.
For further general information about the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, visit their website.
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