Stackpole Quay

Stackpole Quay is a tiny limestone harbour cut into the cliffs on the Stackpole estate, built to ship stone and later to land lobster and crab. It's often described as the smallest harbour in Britain, and standing on the quay you can believe it — there's room for a handful of small boats and not much else. There is no beach here, just a slipway and rock ledges, though people do swim off the quay on calm days and it's a popular spot for kayak launches and coasteering.

For most visitors, Stackpole Quay is the gateway rather than the destination. The National Trust car park, toilets and tea room here are the nearest facilities to Barafundle Bay, which is half a mile away over the headland — up a flight of steps, along the clifftop and down through a stone arch onto the sand. That walk is the reason the car park fills by mid-morning in summer; arrive before ten or after four if you can, and note that the tea room's hours are seasonal.

Beyond Barafundle the path continues past Broad Haven South and the Bosherston lily ponds, giving a superb circular walk of four or five miles that takes in a beach, a harbour, freshwater lakes full of dragonflies and, in early summer, water lilies. The geology is worth a look too — the quay sits on the junction where old red sandstone meets carboniferous limestone, and the change in the cliffs is obvious as you walk north.