Cemaes Head is the highest point on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, and well worth a visit if you’re in the area. Despite this accolade, when we visited it was surprisingly quiet and we had the place totally to ourselves. And what a place: from the distant barks of seals on the beach below the cliffs to the windswept ponies grazing in the fields along the path, there’s something special about this part of the coast path where Pembrokeshire borders Ceredigion.
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This was a 7.5km circular walk we found in our trusty Pocket Mountains guide (similar route online on Walking Britain). The route starts from the large pay and display car park next to Poppit Sands, where we stopped off at the Crwst takeaway hatch in the car park (the doughnuts were AMAZING). After following a quiet road to climb steadily uphill, you pick up countryside tracks which lead you to the coast path at Cemaes Head. You really do feel high up and exposed here – I was glad it wasn’t a windy day!
The sea was the dazzling shade of turquoise we’d come to expect from Pembrokeshire, but that didn’t make the views any less impressive. The cherry on top of the cake was spotting a colony of seals on the beach below the cliffs (it’s a LONG way down so you’ll need binoculars to see them properly – we spent a long time debating whether they were seals or rocks!
When we arrived back in the car park, we dropped off our bags at the car and then headed straight to the beach to let the dogs have a run off the lead. Poppit Sands is a huge sandy beach, big enough that even when there’s a few people around you’ll still have plenty of space to yourself.
Poppit Sands is dog friendly year round, but between May and September the part of the beach to the left of the lifeboat house is off limits to dogs. There’s still plenty of beach to explore on the other side though!
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. This would be a 3/5 as the long section along steep cliffs and a few road sections meant that leads were on most of the way around, but there were no awkward stiles, and the dogs both absolutely LOVED letting off some steam on the beach at the end.
There’s very little shade once you get to the coast path, and no water, so make sure to carry some for your dog on warmer days. Watch out along the cliff edges – we kept leads on as it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
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