The Preseli Walking Trail North Pembrokeshire

is a 67 mile (108km)7 day walk through the unique landscape and distinct culture.

Beginning at Fishguard, and then heading inland through the timeless Gwaun Valley, the mystery of the Preseli Hills unfolds, where memories of ancient peoples are most tangible and prehistoric sites abound. With strong links to King Arthur and the Mabinogion (a collection of stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts), the area is shrouded in mysticism and folklore.

During the ice age melting water carved out the steep sided valley, which has helped to preserve its distinctive communities. Carn Ingli (Mount of Angels), visited by 6^th century St. Brynach, is the site of an Iron Age fort with stone embankments and hut circle remains. The Bluestone quarry is awe-inspiring, provoking thoughts and questions about man’s very existence.

In order to preserve the quality of the experience of the Preseli’s, paths are not waymarked or signposted on the open hill. Views stretch as far as the Black Mountains, Snowdonia and the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. Everywhere you feel the presence of the megalithic tomb-builders and of the Iron Age warriors who piled the stones of the great hill forts.

Dropping down from the Preseli’s past the 1297 ft Frenni Fawr with its legend of a buried treasure chest of gold, the trail follows the path of the once-busy railway tracks of the Cardi Bach railway to Cilgerran. Originally built in 1873 to carry goods from the slate and silver lead mines, the railway reached Crymych in 1876 and Cardigan in 1886. The line closed in 1962.

The Prescelly Hills trail then passes along the Teifi Gorge with its coracle fishing and castle ruins at Cilgerran high above the river, where the Afon Teifi meanders its way to Cardigan and St. Dogmaels. Following the Norman invasion Benedictine monks built an abbey in St. Dogmaels in 1120, replacing an earlier Celtic monastery.

The Pembrokeshire Coastal Path marks the return trek westwards for some 14 miles where the small, but very popular village of Newport with its cosy refreshment hives, lies on the Nevern Estuary.  The castle at Newport was founded around 1200 by the Norman Lord William Fitzmartin after he was driven out of Nevern.  From the 16th century onwards Newport was an important trading and shipbuilding area.

The spectacular final stretch of the trail from Dinas Island to Fishguard completes a journey truly worth making. Two centuries ago Fishguard was an important trading centre with more than 50 ships exporting a wide variety of goods, and it remained busy until the railways came.

On 22 February 1779 the guns of Fishguard Fort were fired to warn of four approaching Napoleonic French warships. The 1,400 soldiers who landed, looting farms and running riot, represented the last ever invasion of the British Isles attempted by France, and were forced to surrender to the local people of the town on Goodwick Sands, with the surrender being signed in the Royal Oak Inn. It is said that a Jemima Nicholas single-handedly rounded up some of the invaders, and a memorial stone to Jemima is in St. Mary’s Church.