Day Fifteen – Sunday, 27 May 2012
Brecon – St Davids
Accommodation - The City Inn
Temperature – 24
Weather – sunny
It was another sunny day as we set off for St Davids (yes,
there is no apostrophe!). This will be
our last stopover before we head to Ireland on Monday. As it was Sunday morning in Brecon the bells
of St Mary’s rang for quite a long time.
We were in no rush and a friend had given us some
information on Amroth and Narberth which she’d read about in a magazine. As they were only a little out of the way it
gave us the opportunity to stay away from the busy roads and explore the
littler places of Wales. We passed many
farms and pulled over and bought some punnets of strawberries and cherries
which the woman said had only been picked that day. They were juicy and delicious and I had to
make sure I had my fair share of them with David around!
Amroth is a seaside town which I think the Welsh know more
about than tourists. It has the added
advantage over Swansea, The Mumbles and others in that it is quiet and the
roads in and out are narrow. There are
quite a few caravan sites and some accommodation but the village is small. The beach has largish pebbles and I was
amused to see a beach competition:
pebble building!
Further west were two larger seaside villages which were
quite busy with roadside cafes and B&Bs along the waterfront. I think David and I are the only ones who
wear hats….we’ve seen many people very sunburnt over the past few days and
unbelievably they continue to sit in the sun with lots of skin exposed long
after they have been burnt. Ouch!
Further north we visited Narberth which is just shy of the
A40. It is a very tidy little town –
busy enough on weekdays to have parking outside the centre and the usual one
way streets around the centre. As it was
lunchtime and there weren’t too many shops opened on a Sunday we managed to buy
some rolls, takeaway coffee and a newspaper and sat in a lush green park and
relaxed.
St Davids is a beautiful little village known as the
littlest city and Wales’ holiest site with the wonderful St David’s
Cathedral. It has been a place of
pilgrimage for 1500 years and was particularly encouraged by Pope Calixtus II
in 1294 when he declared that two pilgrimages to St David’s was equivalent to
one pilgrimage to Rome. The area is also
known for its hiking and boat tours to Ramsey Island where you can see seals,
porpoises (perhaps) and numerous sea birds.
The cathedral is particularly beautiful and is backed by the
remains of the Bishop’s House. Upon
entering the nave we were to discover the choir was practising for Evensong so
we were a bit spoilt. The shrine of St
David was built in 1275 and restored this year.
It sits next to the high altar.
We then wandered the streets and finally chose a pub to
enjoy dinner, wine and a lager. As it
was still light when we had finished we took the opportunity to make the most
of the day and visited St Non’s Bay where it is traditionally accepted where St
David was born. It is a rugged coastline
topped with rich green fields and grazing cows. The purported home of St Non stands derelict
in a beautiful field. St Non’s Well is a
spring which is said to have been formed at the moment of St David’s birth and
is said to have curative powers.
We walked the cliff top path and then onto the Chapel of Our
Lady and St Non which was built in 1935 out of the stones of old religious
buildings. It is said to be built in the
style and size of churches in St Non’s time.
As we sat outside on a bench we took in the wonderful scenery of
Pembrokeshire. It’s a special part of
the world and really deserved so much more of our time.
We detoured to St Justinian’s which is the little harbour
for boats including the life boats to assist boats in distress.
The way back was more direct and we were back in St Davids
in no time ready to sit back and watch the BAFTAs….however David has found the hotel has SkySport and I’m now watching Soccer Aid and seen
Gordon Ramsay being lifted off and injured!
The BAFTAs seem so much safer some how!
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