Stackpole

Stackpole is a 3,000-acre estate on the Pembrokeshire coast, a National Nature Reserve and Grade I listed historic landscape laid out by the Cawdor family as a backdrop to Stackpole Court. The house was demolished in 1963, but the Eight Arch Bridge of 1797 survives, as do the Bosherston Lily Ponds, lakes created in the 1780s and known for otters, water birds and dragonflies. Coast paths link the harbour at Stackpole Quay with the sandy beaches of Barafundle Bay and Broad Haven South. Dogs are welcome across the estate and on the beaches all year, on a lead on Stackpole Warren because of livestock, ground-nesting birds and high cliffs. Trust trails include the one-mile Bosherston Lily Ponds route and a six-mile wildlife walk from Stackpole Quay. Reviewers praise the variety of woods, dunes, cliffs and beaches in a single outing and the Boathouse tearoom by the quay. The narrow lanes rule out motorhomes and coaches at the beach car parks. Conservation work is under way on the archway at Barafundle Bay; the footpath and beach remain open.