While on vacation in South West Wales, we visited the tiny harbour village of Porthgain. We liked it so much that we actually went twice in the week.
The weather was beautiful when we were there and the colour of the sea and sky was quite incredible.
The picture above provides a nice overview of the harbour and village. The harbour dates from around the 1850s, with the seawalls built in a natural inlet from the sea giving quite good protection. On the right side is an old brickworks which is just over 100 years old, but long since defunct - its huge and still dominates the scene. The village is set back from the harbour which you can see above. It probably has homes for around 200-300 people. It also has a pub, shop, seafood eaterie, and a couple of artists shops, which is pretty impressive for a village of that size. But it gets a lot of tourists because its so pretty, and thats why it has the extra amenities.
As said, the old brickworks are huge, and when I first saw them, I thought it was some kind of old fortification from world war 2 or something.
But the handy info board above tells the story. They used to export slate from this port at first, and then when that business died out they switched to brick making.
The harbour is still used by a couple of fishing vessels which is nice to see. These look like they are creelers - for catching crab and lobster.
The building on the right in the pic above is where the seafood is sold directly from the local fishermen. This is great because its as fresh as it gets, and cuts out the middle man so that they get more of the profits.
The small building in the left corner is the local shop - its tiny, and mostly geared towards tourists.
On the side of that shop is this old gun barrel - I assume its a naval gun. Pretty big in size, and I'm guessing it dates from the first or second world wars (so either 100+ or about 80+ years old).
One of the fishermen (or women) was keeping a nice collection of bouys/floats on the side of their hut !
While we were there on the first day, a diver (a lady) just appeared from the water and walked up the harbour slip ! You can see her there just at the bottom right of the pic above ! Jane Bond !!!
And above is my arty shot of the old winch on the dockside.
You can climb up to the headland and the Pembroke Coastal path via the steps in the pic above.
The pic above was taken from the top of those steps, looking north up the Welsh coast. The white pillar on the other side is a marker so that ships can find the port in rough seas.
The port looks directly out into the Atlantic Ocean. I think the first land you probably get to when going straight out is Skull Island. Sorry, I mean Ireland.
It really was a stunning place to visit - just so quaint and scenic. The brickworks must have made it a very busy place in the past - there must have been hundreds working there.
As can be seen above, its quite a tidal harbour, with a decent tidal range of what looks to be around 12 feet or so judging by the marks on the seawalls.
It was an absolutely stunning place to visit - well worth dropping in to see !
Just after we left Porthgain and went towards St Davids we got caught in a Welsh traffic jam ! One of the cows was making a beeline towards us to check us out ! Actually it was milking time for these cows, and the farmer was taking them across the road from his field to the milking parlour. Its not that uncommon to see this type of thing in the UK.
Anyway, we enjoyed the visit - including seeing the cows !!!
