Carew

Carew packs an unusual amount into a small village. The castle is the centrepiece: a Norman stronghold rebuilt as an Elizabethan mansion, so one side is a fortress and the other a range of great mullioned windows, and it stands directly above a tidal millpond that reflects the whole thing on a still morning. Across the water, the Carew tidal mill is the only restored tidal mill in Wales — the pond filled on the flood, the gates closed, and the outgoing water drove the wheels.

By the road junction stands the Carew Cross, a carved stone cross more than four metres high, raised in the eleventh century as a memorial to a Welsh king. It is one of the finest early medieval monuments in Wales and, unusually, you can walk straight up to it. A circular walk of about a mile links castle, cross and mill around the pond, which makes this an easy outing with small children or less mobile visitors.

The village itself is small — a pub opposite the cross, a church at Carew Cheriton with a rare medieval charnel chapel, and lanes leading down to the Carew River, an upper arm of the Daugleddau where herons, curlew and kayakers share the mud at low tide. As a base, Carew is central for the south: Tenby and Pembroke are both fifteen minutes, the Cleddau creeks at Lawrenny and Cresswell Quay ten. It is not a beach village, and the A477 nearby carries traffic, but for history and estuary quiet it is hard to beat.

A small number of cottages sit in the village within walking distance of the castle, mill and pub — the pick for anyone wanting to leave the car alone in the evening. Beyond them, farm conversions in the lanes towards Sageston, Cresselly and the Daugleddau offer more space, gardens and parking, with beaches fifteen to twenty minutes away in several directions.

Just off the A477 Pembroke–Kilgetty road, signposted at Milton. No village station; the Pembroke Dock branch line stops at Kilgetty and Pembroke, both around fifteen minutes by car.