Caerbwdi Bay

Caerbwdi is a narrow inlet where a stream comes down a wooded valley to the sea, a short walk east of Caerfai along the Coast Path. There's no road to it and no facilities; you either walk in from the Caerfai car park in ten or fifteen minutes or come down the valley path from the main road, which is boggy after rain. It's shingle and rock rather than a sandy beach, and at high tide it's more or less all boulders.

Its claim on your attention is geological and historical: the purple-red Cambrian sandstone exposed in the cliffs and the beach here is the stone used in St Davids Cathedral, quarried and shipped from this bay. The strata are folded and tilted in ways that make it a standard teaching stop for geology groups, and the boulders on the beach show the colour better than anything you'll see in the cathedral walls. There's usually a lot of storm-thrown driftwood at the back.

Go for the walk and the quiet rather than a beach day. It's a good place to sit out of the wind with a flask, and the valley behind holds birds and, in spring, bluebells. Swimming is possible on a calm high tide but it's rocky underfoot, completely unguarded, and there's no easy exit if conditions change — most people who swim on this stretch use Caerfai instead. Combine it with Caerfai and the St Non's headland for a satisfying two-hour circuit from St Davids.