In Welsh mythology, Llŷr is the god of the sea. In his latest incarnation – a shimmering five-metre seahorse, keeping watch from Fishguard’s Marine Walk – he’s king of the Pembrokeshire coast.
“I’m calling him Llŷr before anyone else names him,” local artist Gideon Peterson said as we gazed at his magnificent stainless steel creation, perhaps fearing a Seahorsey McSeahorseface situation. “I see him as a water dragon, protecting seafarers. He’ll be visible from the ferry, and will reflect whatever the sky is doing – he’ll catch all kinds of light.”
Even on a drab day Llŷr dazzled, a fitting centrepiece for Celf ar Droed (Art Afoot). Launched in December, this new network of trails will, it’s hoped, raise the profile of Fishguard and neighbouring Goodwick, and encourage both locals and visitors to explore between the two.
There are three Art Afoot routes, ranging from 1.25 to 1.75 miles long, which can be walked separately or linked to make a loop that’s just under four miles. As well as the seahorse, other artworks dot the trails. A dragonfly, also Gideon’s, rises from the reed beds of Goodwick Moor nature reserve. A sculpture of Jemima Nicholas, pitchfork-wielding heroine of the last invasion of mainland Britain (when a French force landed near Fishguard in 1797), stands on West Street. Augmented-reality plankton hovers above the waterfront, viewable by QR code and smartphone.
I was walking with Gideon and David Pepper – composer, pianist, pilgrimage officer with the British Pilgrimage Trust and a man with fingers in many local cultural pies. The trails are about regeneration and showing off the towns, David said, because there is more than art afoot: “Things were happening in Fishguard anyway but lockdown speeded them up; people came back. It’s exciting times.”
For instance, the Cove Corner cafe has been taken on by a new young team who plan to turn it into a social hub. Trove, a creative cafe and workshop, just opened on West Street. The historic Farmers Arms pub, empty for years, is being renovated. These join existing successes such as the superb Seaways Bookshop and Nourish sourdough bakery.
Fishguard deserves to be having a moment. A working port, it’s often overlooked for cutesier St Davids and Tenby. But its functional nature is also a strength, especially for an off-season, car-free visitor. It’s one of the few towns in the Pembrokeshire Coast national park that visitors can get to by train, and its year-round life, independent of tourism, makes a refreshing change. Certainly the Royal Oak was buzzy on a chilly Tuesday night for the weekly folk session. “They’ve been doing this for 30 years,” the woman serving at the bar told me. Plus Fishguard’s 30-metre long Last Invasion of Britain tapestry – an embroidered Bayeux-like marvel, detailing the 1797 attack – can be visited year-round. I had come to check out the new art trails, but also to enjoy a cosy, lively winter break by the sea.
My base was the Manor Town House, an elegant Georgian B&B where Helen and Chris Sheldon offer warm hospitality and a good winter discount. I arrived after dark to find the lounge soft-lit and flickered by candles. Helen settled me on a sofa by the woodburner, pointed out the honesty bar – it would have been rude not to try the local Golden Road Gin – and then brought me a platter of creamy Caws Cenarth cheeses. I could see Bill Bryson’s point: after his stay here, he called it “the loveliest hotel in Wales”.
The next morning, after being fed some more – this time, Helen’s meat-free breakfast feast – it was time to explore. Fewer buses serve the area in winter, but the T5 still runs. I thought about catching it to nearby Dinas for a hike around Dinas Head, lunch at the newly reopened Sailors’ Safety and then a coast path walk back to Fishguard. But I opted for Newport instead. This charming Norman-founded town, with its vast, tide-swirled sands, is home of Hidden Routes, a company offering e-mountain-biking trips into the hills and valleys inland. Its bikes are more like tanks, with the heft and gusto to tackle all terrains in all weathers. Winter was certainly no barrier. “But wear this,” said guide Ian Muir as he handed me a jacket. “It will be muddy.”
I’m a novice (and a scaredy cat) with regard to mountain biking, but Ian tailored a route to my comfort zone. In this way, we climbed to Carningli Common – surely one of the best lookouts in Wales – and dropped into the secretive Gwaun Valley. We used a mix of sloshy tracks and byways, just adventurous enough for me, and country lanes so quiet they may as well have been reserved for cyclists.
One such lane led to the Bluestone Brewing Company, where head brewer Tom Dunn was loading up Christmas deliveries (sadly, the taproom was closed). Another took us to Pentre Ifan dolmen, where a mighty capstone teeters on three uprights, put in place 5,000 years ago. Buzzards burst from the hedgerows and the low light larked about, variously streaking through clouds, zapping hillsides into fields of gold. The season accentuated the ancientness of the landscape somehow; it was like a solstice Stonehenge without the crowds. Ian nodded: “It’s an undiscovered place.”
On my final day, I made another great discovery. With some buses mothballed for the season, I’d feared it would be hard to plot a linear walk. Then I learned of Transport for Wales’s on-demand fflecsi bus. I booked in advance via the app, logging where and when I wanted a pick-up, where I wanted to go, dubious as to whether it would actually work. But as I finished another of Helen’s multi-course breakfasts – hot-smoked salmon and samphire, crepes with ricotta and figs – a text arrived: “Your bus is 28 minutes away”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was the only passenger bound for Pwll Deri, the not-even-a-hamlet from which I planned to hike the 10 miles back to Fishguard. The driver dropped me at a Wales Coast Path sign, bade me a good walk, then tootled off. It cost me £2.50. It seemed like magic, as did the weather. The sky, which started delicate pink, gently changed to deep blue; there was barely a breath of wind.
I rambled along the tumbling cliffs in the best of moods towards Strumble Head, with its winking lighthouse and perilously beautiful shores. Just beyond was a second world war shelter, built as a radar station and now a wildlife hide. Here, I found Ken Barnett of Sea Watch, peering down a long lens, scanning for dorsals. “This is the best place in Europe, if not the world, to see harbour porpoise,” he said through his layers of woollens. “They pass four times a day with the tidal race, when there’s lots of fish. Now is one of those times.”
I spent the rest of my walk trying not to trip, gaze focused out to smooth seas full of cetacean promise. Alas, I saw none, only gulls and stonechats, and Welsh ponies keeping down the scrub. Then I reached the bay of Aberfelin, where a sound like hungover moaning rose from a mass slob-out of seals. I listened to them for a while, sitting by the memorial stone at Carreg Wastad, marking the very point where French troops landed in February 1797. Thankfully, today’s winter visitors to Fishguard and its surrounding hills, seas and trails, receive a far warmer welcome.
The trip was provided by Visit Pembrokeshire. Manor Town House offers two-night stays for £200/£260 room-only/B&B until 1 March. Hidden Routes’ 90-minute Mountain Taster tour costs £30pp. Free Art Afoot maps are available from Goodwick’s Ocean Lab, Fishguard Library and artafoot.co.uk. Fflecsi buses can be booked by phone or app
