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| A favourite place of William, Duke of Clarence |
Out on the headlands again with map maker and professional guide Steve Jones. High sun and temperatures to match. Dust on the coastal path turning the thistle heads a threatening grey.
Lots of people wearing very little, room enough for all and everyone greets everyone and makes way.
We look out to sea. The coast at low tide, rock formations of blue, pink and grey slither down into an impossible turquoise water.
Off Ramsey Island, smaller isles romantic names; Bishops and Clerks eight islands to the west. Bitches Rocks, a reef that stretches to Ramsey Sound, a notorious stretch of water that have been unfaithful to too many sailors. On a spring tide the tidal race can reach 18 knots.
Across these Pembrokeshire waters came traders from the Middle ages: Iron France, northern Spain and the Forest of Dean. The West Country also provided apples, pears and walnuts. Woad was transported from Picardy to dye cloth. Exported where locally produced hides, salt-fish, butter, cheese, corn and wool.1
These traders may have landed in Whitesands Bay. Now White Sands is crowded with holiday makers, spread out like chicken fillets on the world’s largest griddle.
Turning inland and we walk a steep narrow path, part of which is Marsh or would be normally. On top we gain a track and see a house and farm bounded by telegraph poles: Upper Treleddyn Farmhouse. A favourite place of William, Duke of Clarence, in the years before his accession as King William IV in 1830. He’d pop quite often to visit his mistress, Dorothy Bland, aka the London actress Mrs. Jordan.2
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| The coast at low tide, rock formations of blue, pink and grey slither down into an impossible turquoise water. |
We are walking distance from St David’s Cathedral now and ah, there’s the car. This has been another brilliant walk with Steve, as he carefully unlocks the nature, history and landscape of ground he knows so well. And, again, can hardly wait for the next one.
https://www.peninsulaguides.co.uk
SCOURCES & A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO
1.
https://www.pembrokeandmonktonhistory.org.uk/medievalPembroke.html
©Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society
Registered Charity no: 1158530
2.
http://www.pembrokeshirehistoricalsociety.co.uk/treginnis-cross-hypothesis/
©Pembrokeshire Historical Society Karl Johansen’s article.
Lovely piece of writing - you convey the sense experiences in such a way that I remember for a moment just how lucky I am to be on earth.
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