On the beach – from Penally to Tenby…

The view through our ogee-arched windows at the Penally Abbey Hotel in Pembrokeshire…

Dorset was not the only place we holidayed this summer. We also went to Pembrokeshire in West Wales, where we explored the area around Tenby. I’m afraid I took LOTS of pictures, so I will feed them through my blog in themed chunks, probably more than one post a week, over the next month.

There will be Tenby itself, a trip to Caldey Island, plus visits to a couple of gardens. But for now let’s start on our first day, when we arrived at Penally, just a couple of miles along the coast from Tenby.

Fuchsias flower around the Penally Abbey Hotel sign…

The Penally Abbey Hotel, Penally, Tenby…

There’s an old ruined building in a corner of the small car park at the hotel – apparently St Deiniol’s Chapel…

Magnolia tree beneath our hotel window…

It’s hard to get a good view of the whole hotel, but I took this from a boat on the way to Caldy Island – the Penally Abbey Hotel is just below the white building in the middle of this picture…

Penally Church is dedicated to St Nicholas and St Teilo – more on that in another post…

Although we didn’t find it until our third day, Penally has a wonderful village store. It’s a converted house, painted that pink colour they used to get from putting pigs’ blood in the whitewash.

Inside it is long and narrow but manages to fit everything in by having on display just a few of each jar, tin or box – and it will order anything it hasn’t got. As well as a general store, it is a post office and newsagent.

The entrance to Penally’s amazing little village store…

This is the view of Tenby from the village…

We were told it was a 10-minute walk to the beach and a half-hour walk along the beach to Tenby. We went out to explore as soon as we had unpacked our cases.

A links golf course and beach beyond, seen from the hotel…

The beach at Penally – and a ship that always seemed to be around. Perhaps it’s a dredger?

We reached the beach by passing between the links golf course and an Army firing range, where young cadets were practising their shooting and making sure no one strayed into their sights.

We really hadn’t planned to walk to Tenby, but it was so enticing, as it looked so near…

Tenby, seen from the beach at Penally…

So we just kept going, really, even though I had no coat or proper handbag with me, as we hadn’t planned to “go to town”.

Tenby was getting nearer…

It was lovely walking on the hard, flat sand near the sea’s edge and as we drew nearer to Tenby there was some shingle under foot.

A random patch of shingle…

There started to be more people on the beach as we drew near Tenby

South Beach, Tenby…

The worst part was trudging through deep, soft sand to get off the beach. If only we could have gone straight from the sea’s edge to the path up the cliff to reach the town, we would have done the walk more than once. The path was steep, so I took the opportunity to take pictures and catch my breath…

Looking back to Penally over South Beach, Tenby

That’s Caldey Island in the distance…

Pembrokeshire ice-cream hut…

Hoverfly on yarrow beside the cliff path…

St Catherine’s Island, Tenby…

St Catherine’s Island is joined to Tenby at low tide and has what’s called a Palmerston Fort, built in 1870 when the Victorians, whose Prime Minister at the time was Lord Palmerston, set up these defences around the coast because they were worried about the growing power of the French navy. Their worries subsided after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and the forts have been follies, more or less, ever since.

A closer look at St Catherine’s Fort…

For a while the fort housed a zoo (1968-1979) and there have been plans recently to make it a tourist attraction connected to the mainland by a new bridge, but these plans have failed so far. See the story here.

We had our first glimpse of the Tenby town walls, built by William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke, in the late 13th century…

The area by the old walls has a French feel to it and in the wall is the back entrance to the Normandie Inn, an old coaching house…

Inside the walls Tenby was busy…

This is Tenby’s Church of St Mary, whose distinctive spire could be seen from Penally…

We decided to go on a little carriage ride around town for £4 and spent a while sitting in the carriage – cool on a hot day – before we set off. Layla the Cleveland Bay, a rescued horse, could not be hurried when eating her oats and carrots…

View from the horse carriage – Layla the Cleveland Bay nibbles a carrot. Beyond are the usual shops found on British high streets…

Carriage ride through Tenby…

Some streets were more crowded than others…

The ride was very short – just around the block, really! Not very good value, but it was fun.

Here’s a last look at Layla…

We did some shopping in Tenby and found the convenient little bus back to Penally, which we started to use regularly.

The hotel was excellent. The room was big and the view great. We ate in the hotel every night and the chef always managed to come up with something new, so we never tired of the food.

The owners are Steve and Eileen Warren – he is “front of house”, she is the chef. I know the place has been on the market for just under £1m, but I guess it’s just because they would like to retire and have a rest eventually!

Here’s the website for the Penally Abbey and this is what Wikipedia says.

And here are my other blog posts about Pembrokeshire.

Morning on the second day at the hotel…

… that ship was still out there in the heat haze, beyond the magnolia tree…

Time for the next excursion…

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