Photo: Humphrey Bolton (CC BY-SA 2.0)The sailing village's sheltered shingle-and-sand beach on the Milford Haven waterway — flat water, boats and a pub on the front.
Dale's beach fronts the village along Dale Roads, a deep sheltered anchorage inside the Milford Haven waterway. It's shingle at the top with sand appearing as the tide drops, and it is not a beach for long sandy walks — it's a beach for getting on the water. Dale is the county's watersports village, with a sailing club, activity centre, boat moorings filling the bay, and hire and instruction available in season. Kayaking, dinghy sailing, windsurfing and paddleboarding all happen here on water that's usually flat when the open coast is unusable.
That shelter is the whole point. When the westerlies are hammering Marloes and Whitesands, Dale is often calm enough to teach children to sail. The flipside is tidal current: streams run hard through the waterway and around St Ann's Head, so stay inside the bay unless you know what you're doing. There's parking along the front, toilets, a café and a pub a few steps from the water.
Walking from here is excellent. The Dale peninsula circuit — out past the castle to St Ann's Head lighthouse, round to Mill Bay where Henry Tudor landed in 1485, and back over Westdale Bay — is about seven miles of first-rate Coast Path and can be shortened to a fifteen-minute crossing to Westdale if you just want the surf side. Watch the working shipping in the waterway; it's part of the character of the place.
The nearest pubs, cafés and restaurants, closest first. Walking times are rough estimates on lane and cliff path — check opening hours before you rely on one.
Dale, SA62 3RB
Three-hundred-year-old pub on Dale's sea wall at the mouth of the Haven — lobster from pots in the bay, Bluestone ales and its own amber beer, and the last pub standing of a village that once had fifteen.
150m away · about 5 min walk
200m away · about 5 min walk
Nearest forecast point: The Haven
dry for the next few hours, around 13°C, gusting to 26 mph — hold on to the windbreak.
01:00
13°
Fair
W 26 mph
02:00
12°
Clear
W 26 mph
03:00
12°
Clear
NW 25 mph
04:00
12°
Clear
NW 24 mph
05:00
12°
Clear
NW 24 mph
06:00
12°
Fair
NW 23 mph
07:00
12°
Clear
NW 23 mph
08:00
12°
Clear
NW 24 mph
Forecast from MET Norway, used under CC BY 4.0. It's a forecast for the nearest of six points across the county, not for this exact spot — on a coast this shaped, one headland can be in sun and the next in rain.
The light goes gold from about 17:57, and this beach faces the sunset.
Calculated for these coordinates, accurate to a minute or so. A cliff or a headland to your west will take the sun sooner than this suggests.
Dale Roads · about 1 miles away
High water
06:37
Sat 10 Oct · 7.0m
Low water
12:49
Sat 10 Oct · 0.6m
High water
18:54
Sat 10 Oct · 7.2m
Low water
01:11
Sun 11 Oct · 0.6m
Predicted times from the UK Hydrographic Office. Wind and pressure shift real water levels, and the tide at a specific cove can run earlier or later than its port. Never plan a tidal crossing on this alone.
Natural Resources Wales
NRW notes water quality here can be affected by heavy rain — worth remembering the day after a downpour.
This is a designated bathing water, sampled by Natural Resources Wales through the May–September season. Official record (Open Government Licence v3.0, © Natural Resources Wales). Classification as published when we last checked, 2026-08-21 — the official record always has the latest.
The practical answers, from the people responsible for them, checked 2026-08-23.
The Gann crossing just east of Dale is only reliable for three and a half hours either side of low water. The Authority's trick for doing both tidal crossings in a day: reach the first as the tide is dropping, halfway between high and low, which leaves five hours to get to Sandy Haven.
Source: Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, Dale to Neyland
129 spaces
£1.50 for an hour, £3 for two hours, £4.50 for four hours, £6 for 24 hours, £30 a week.
Seasonal charging.
Run by Pembrokeshire County Council.
Source: Pembrokeshire County Council car park charges
Dale Beach is not on the RNLI’s list of patrolled beaches, so there is no lifeguard service at any time of year. Judge the water yourself, and if you are at all unsure, swim somewhere that is patrolled.
Source: RNLI, 2026 patrol dates
OpenStreetMap
2 car parks within a mile of the sand, 1 of them free. The nearest is about 300m away — roughly a 5-minute walk if you park there and carry everything in.
Not recorded · about 129 spaces · Pembrokeshire County Council
Unnamed car park (National Trust)
Free · National Trust
Distances are straight-line from the beach, so the walk is usually longer — and on this coast it is often downhill on the way there. Charges and space counts come from OpenStreetMap contributors and can go out of date; we don’t print prices, because the map records whether a car park charges, not how much. In July and August the popular ones fill by mid-morning.
No reviews yet — been to Dale Beach? Tell people what it was actually like.
Northern end restricted 1 May – 30 September; the rest welcomes dogs all year.
The nearest car park we map is Dale, about 300m away (£1.50 an hour, £3 for two hours, £4.50 for four, £6 for 24 hours, £30 a week. seasonal charging.). There is one more within a mile.
Yes — public toilets are mapped about 150m from the beach. Seasonal opening is normal on the Pembrokeshire coast, so treat winter as uncertain.
Answers are generated from what we actually hold in our database and refreshed as it changes. Opening hours, dog rules and prices move — check with the venue before you travel.
Hand-picked places to stay within a mile or so, nearest first. Our picks are data-driven — we haven’t stayed — and we earn a commission when you book through a partner link. How that works.
Dale · Sleeps 5 · 3 beds
Bookable via cottages.com
Dale · Sleeps 2 · 1 bed
Bookable via cottages.com
Dale · Sleeps 5 · 3 beds
Bookable via cottages.com