Welsh Journals

The Western Limit Footpath to Barafundle by CLIVE GAMMON AT STACKPOLE QUAY, in the Castlemartin Peninsula, the roseate sandstone cliffs give way to the limestone; and the change is a greater one than the simple geological terms express. The pleasant, pretty, resort beaches like Freshwater East are left behind, and ahead and westward are the massive grey promontories of St Govans and Linney Head, and the austere and noble cliff scenery that lies between them. In July and August, the grassy hill top above the Quay is packed with cars, twin-toned, chrome high- lighted monsters for the most part, with Midland registration numbers, for this is the western limit, in this sector at least, of tourist advance. Between here and Freshwater West, apart from Broadhaven Bay itself, you have to get out and walk-and that seems an important deterrent to further conquest. The Quay itself curls into the sea like a crooked little finger, and pointing away and westwards is a sign: Footpath to Barafundle. The odd Irish sounding name belongs to a cove a mile's walk away over the sheep cropped turf of the headlands, which, until the last war, was the private bathing beach of Earl Cawdor. As a result of his generosity, anyone may go there now, but it has never lost its air of remoteness and privacy. Even on a bank holiday, in the finest of weather, there are only a few bathing parties, and on many days in summer the white sand is virgin of footprints. Looking down on it from the cliff above, the sea fisherman (as I now confess myself) sees only the high tide mark of dark weed and bleached timber, and inland, the dunes and Stackpole Woods. For several years, however, its attraction for me as an angler was limited. My chief interest was in bass fishing, and for this sport Barafundle was manifestly unsuitable. For one thing there was no surf to speak of: the beach is sheltered by great headlands so that it has become very steep, and bass usually haunt the great Atlantic storm beaches like Rhosili or Freshwater West, where the breakers