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The southern half of Pembrokeshire is known as the 'little England beyond Wales' and has long been an English enclave;
Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) had his power-base here, after all.
As you head towards the North Coast, the place names and the people become progressively more Welsh, but the area still feels more like the Marches than deepest, darkest Wales.
Fine coastline, blessedly traffic free, a bit like Cornwall, but with less reliable weather.
Remains of a Norman Castle, only half of which still remains substantially above ground level.
Fine views down to the Teifi river, where coracle fishermen can still sometime be spotted.
Famous for its 4m (13ft) high elaborately patterned Great Celtic cross,
dating from the 10th century, one of the finest in Wales.
It is said that the first cuckoo arriving in Wales sings its very first song from the top of the cross
on St Brynach's feast day, 7th April.
The church is also well known for its collection of Celtic memorial stones,
one of which - to Maelgwyn (Maglocunus) - is inscribed in both Latin and Ogham, and acted as a sort of "Rosetta Stone" to the Ogham script.
Surely the most elegant of all the dolmens. Its beautiful cuttlebone shaped capstone rests so delicately on the points of the three supporting uprights
that it is difficult to believe that the ancients could ever have covered it all with a mound of earth.
Reminds me of Concorde, somehow, but perhaps that's just me.
Most noticeable are the substantial remains of the brick-built road stone hoppers on the quayside.
Granite was quarried nearby, and hauled up to the top of the hill behind the village.
Here it was crushed and sorted into different grades which were stored in the hoppers until ships, which could barely fit into the harbour,
came to transport the stone all around the UK.
In addition to the granite, slate from nearby Abereiddy was also shipped from here, and there was a brickworks and a lime kiln.
There is a fine cliff top walk from Porthgain, past the remote beach at Traeth Llyfin to Abereiddy and its Blue Pool (the old slate quarry).
External Links and References
External Links
The Sloop Inn
New site with limited information on the pub
The Shed Wine Bar & Bistro - About Porthgain
The Restaurant is new since we were there, but they have some interesting information on the village and its history on their site.
Short narrow-gauge line built on the track bed of a former standard-gauge branch of the Great Western Railway.
Trains used run from Henllan, three and a quarter kilometres (two miles) up to Llandyfriog,
stopping at the impressive Pont-pren-shitw bridge on the way back.
Note: In Welsh the 's' and 'h' are pronounced as separate consonants, not the 'ssh' sound they make in English. Just as well, really.
One of the primary objectives of the railway is to attract tourists to the area, and a worthy enough objective that is too.
However, it is difficult for an old cynic like me to shake off the thought that they are somehow 'cashing in' on the popularity of Welsh narrow-gauge railways,
rather than undertaking a serious exercise in preservation.
They do have a nice collection of industrial diesel locos, however, together with a couple of recently acquired steam engines.
Furthermore in 2006 the line was extended as far as the River Teifi.
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