After settling in on Friday evening to our most comfortable accommodation at Preseli Venture, between St David’s and Fishguard, our fun-filled kayaking weekend started off meeting our coaches Martin, Ben and Rich from Sea Kayak Guides (SKG) at their new base at The Paddock, Mathry. There’s a small cafe and nice farm-shop there, and toilets. We agreed that with a south-westerly wind, we’d opt for a fairly gentle paddle day along the sheltered coastline from Porthgain Harbour, where there’s a slipway into the sea for easy launching. We headed west along the coast past Traeth Beach, Garn Lwyd and towards Trwyncastyell, then back via Cerrig Gwylan. Plenty of opportunities for some paddling through gullies, rock-hopping and exploring big and small caves. That evening we enjoyed a well-deserved dinner at the Sloop Inn at Porthgain.
Looking for a bit more challenge on Sunday, we drove about an hour to Martins Haven, Marloes, where there’s a National Trust car park. It’s a bit of a walk to the beach from the car park so have trolleys – it’s possible to take a car down temporarily but space is tight. There are toilets (and an underwater photography gallery), and nearer the car park an NT shop selling lots of puffin paraphernalia and hot drinks. Leaving the harbour, carefully avoiding the Skomer Ferry and a number of scuba divers, we headed west past Wooltack Point and across to Skomer Island, much of which is a Nature Reserve. Stopping in at North Haven beach near the Warden’s house for lunch, and where an inquisitive seal kept an eye on us.
Wildlife was abundant and we saw puffins, razorbills, guillemots and more. Continuing anti-clockwise round Skomer, there were some thrills or gritted teeth, depending on experience (!) in the fast flow turbulence on the north side, and the first elegant capsize.
More fun in the fast flow of Little Sound on the south side, practising navigating the eddy lines and wave surfing – and another “swim”. Then finally past Midland Isle and across the often challenging Jack Sound, back to Martins Haven. Tired but happy, we ended the day with a hearty and delicious Indian meal back at the accommodation, accompanied by the most amazing sunset.
On Monday we started from Whitesands Bay on a linear route to Porthclais Harbour. It did mean moving most of the cars to Porthclais after dropping off the kayaks, but that didn’t take long. Whitesands Bay has a nice big beach, so easy for launching. There’s an RNLI lifeguard station there, and a good cafe/shop and toilets.
We headed slightly north away from the beach to St David’s Head, to optimise catching the wind and flow, before heading west over to Ramsay Island. We visited Ogof Hen (Old Cave), one of longest going back 200m. It was pretty awesome inside, and the roof of the cave drips freshwater.
We had lunch on the pebble beach below the abandoned farmhouse, then moved south down to The Bitches, playing around in the flow, crossing and re-crossing eddy lines – though the flow was more forgiving than in Little Sound.
We crossed over Ramsey Sound doing a swift 7 knots (!), and then with the wind swinging east and touching Force 4, we had a bit of a push along the coastline to Porthclais Harbour (toilets and a closed kiosk). A few stayed behind for a bit practising rolls and rescues in the harbour. We returned to the happy news that CKC’s Liza had passed her Sea Kayak Leader assessment. Congratulations Liza! And many thanks to Andrew, Ingo, Jo and Jude for offering to be led over the two days (aka being ‘dunk monkeys’!).
Thanks to Martin, Ben, Rich and Ollie from Sea Kayak Guides for an excellent weekend of coaching, learning and exploring!
You can see some of the highlights on our YouTube video of this weekend, here (7mins 40s): Pembrokeshire, May 2026.
