{"id":2479,"date":"2013-09-12T22:21:26","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T21:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2479"},"modified":"2026-05-24T06:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T05:36:12","slug":"call-that-a-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/09\/12\/call-that-a-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Call That A City?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our day started in proper retirement mode; a slow breakfast, a bit of newspaper reading (3 days old) and no urgency to our day.\u00a0 We watched as caravans, motorhomes and tents packed up and left, leaving us all alone at our end of field number three.\u00a0 But with the rain holding off, and not really wanting to blob around all day, we set off in search of another stretch of the Wales Coastal Path.\u00a0 The path passes just below the campsite, so we wandered out of the gates just above Caerfai Bay and headed west to St Non’s Chapel.\u00a0 The current chapel is only 78 years old and it is the most westerly chapel in Britain, but services are not held there due to the fact that the rain soaks through the 2 \u00bd feet thick stone walls when storms occur.\u00a0 St Non was the mother of St David and gave birth to him during a thunderstorm, maybe there’s something spooky in the connection?<\/span><\/p>\n

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St Non’s Chapel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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From St Non’s we followed footpaths across fields, opening and closing at least a dozen gates, until we finally reached St David’s, the smallest city in Britain.\u00a0 And it is tiny!\u00a0 The cathedral and the Bishops Palace, although tucked away in a dip on one side, seem rather too large for such a tiny ‘village’.\u00a0 Most of the palace is a ruin, but a lot of the 12thC cathedral has, and is still being, restored to its former glory.\u00a0 However when you stand inside it’s quite disconcerting to note that the whole building slopes uphill and the walls are bowing out in places.\u00a0 I hope the restorers and engineers have sorted that out….<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"St
St David’s Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After a stroll around the city, which took all of five minutes, we ate lunch in The Bishops Pub before walking along the road back to Eileen for an afternoon sheltering from the now pouring rain.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Bishop’s Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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On Thursday morning, we showered a bit earlier and separately (plenty of hot water here) and then with a big cooked breakfast in our bellies, we set off east along the Wales Coastal Path.\u00a0 The sky was heavy with dark clouds and the ground was wet underfoot, but we were keen to walk to the village of Solva.\u00a0 This is yet another beautiful part of the Pembrokeshire section; more dramatic cliffs, beaches and endless islands.\u00a0 At Porth-y- Rhaw the view was stunning, or really would have been if only the sun had come out.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Porth
Porth-y-Rhaw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Looking
Looking along the coast from the Porth-y-Rhaw hillfort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After walking about 9kms we reached the top of a cliff with views over Solva Harbour.\u00a0 It’s a curiously shaped harbour with rocks at the entry and a ninety degree turn in the middle, which probably makes it very sheltered.\u00a0 It’s hard to believe from its tiny size, but by 1900 there were apparently thirty ships registered there and nine warehouses.\u00a0 In 1840 you could sail on a ship from Solva direct to America and it cost all of \u00a34, although that was probably a year’s salary back then.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Solva
Solva Harbour with The Gribbin in the background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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We wandered along past Trinity Quay, probably the scene of many sad goodbyes and on to Lower Solva and with a bit of energy still left, we walked up to The Gribin, a headland on the opposite side of the harbour.\u00a0 At the top there are views over the next tiny valley, the Gwadn and further down the coast towards Dinas Fawr and Newgale.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Solva
Solva Harbour and The Black Rock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The mizzle came in again; it really wasn’t raining or even a drizzle, but it was more than a mist and any photos were just not going to come out.\u00a0 So we ambled back down to Lower Solva, popped in a shop and then hopped on the next bus that came through on route to St Davids.\u00a0 It was definitely time to get back to Eileen and snuggle down for the evening<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Solva
Solva Harbour in the mizzle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our day started in proper retirement mode; a slow breakfast, a bit of newspaper reading (3 days old) and no urgency to our day.\u00a0 We watched as caravans, motorhomes and tents packed up and left, leaving us all alone at our end of field number three.\u00a0 But with the rain holding off, and not really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-the-road-in-great-britain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8363,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479\/revisions\/8363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}