Abermawr

Abermawr sits on the stretch of north coast between Strumble Head and Abereiddi, down a narrow lane with room for a few cars on the verge. At high tide it's a steep bank of grey storm cobbles with the sea slapping into it — a place to sit and watch rather than sunbathe. Drop the tide and a broad shelf of firm dark sand comes out from under the stones, and it becomes a fine walking and dog beach.

Behind the pebble ridge is the unusual bit: a strip of wet alder woodland and marsh where the stream backs up, full of birds and, after winter storms, the exposed stumps of a submerged forest at the low-water mark. Brunel surveyed this bay in the 1840s as the intended Irish ferry terminus for the South Wales Railway; the scheme collapsed and went to Neyland instead, and the low embankment you can trace behind the beach is what came of it. Storms in the 1850s did the rest.

There are no facilities of any kind, and no lifeguards. It's exposed to the north-west, so it takes the full weight of Atlantic weather — which is exactly why it's worth visiting on a big day, wrapped up, when the swell is piling into the cobbles. Abermawr Bach next door is smaller and quieter still. Combine with Pwllcrochan, the Coast Path towards Strumble, or a run down to Porthgain for lunch.