Photo: Thomas Nicholls (Public domain)Upton Castle Gardens
CastleThirty-five acres of gardens and arboretum around a private medieval castle on the Cleddau — the county's quietest fine garden.
- Website
- uptoncastle.com
Things to do in Cresswell Quay
Within about 5 miles of Cresswell Quay we list 40 places to go — 3 castles, 24 attractions, 1 museum or gallery, 6 nature reserves and viewpoints and 1 walk.
The ones we've written up in full are Upton Castle Gardens, Picton Castle & Gardens, Carew Tidal Mill — start there if you only have a day.
For a wet day there is 1 indoor option nearby: Carew Cheriton Control Tower. Opening hours shrink hard out of season.
Everything below is ordered by distance from Cresswell Quay, with the places we've written about in full listed first. Nothing on this page is paid for.
Castles and ruins near Cresswell Quay
Pembrokeshire has more castles per mile than almost anywhere in Britain, because for four hundred years it was a frontier. Some are ticketed and roofed; some are a gatehouse in a field with nobody taking money.
Photo: Thomas Nicholls (Public domain)2.2 miles from Cresswell Quay
Photo: Morris (Public domain)Picton Castle & Gardens
CastleA lived-in medieval castle turned Georgian mansion outside Haverfordwest, with 40 acres of woodland gardens — one of the county's two great garden days out.
- Website
- pictoncastle.co.uk
5 miles from Cresswell Quay
Benton Castle
Castle2.7 miles from Cresswell Quay
Attractions and days out near Cresswell Quay
The paid days out — the ones that fill a whole morning and have a car park and a café.
Photo: Chris Allen (CC BY-SA 2.0)1.9 miles from Cresswell Quay
Photo: Karen Sawyer (CC BY-SA 4.0)Carew Castle & Tidal Mill
AttractionNorman castle turned Elizabethan mansion on the Carew river, with Wales's only restored tidal mill and a fine circular walk.
Dogs welcome
1.9 miles from Cresswell Quay
Photo: Garth Newton (CC BY-SA 2.0)Manor Wildlife Park
AttractionSt Florence, SA70 8RJ
Fifty-two-acre conservation-led wildlife park near Tenby — walk-through lemur and wallaby enclosures, Sumatran tigers, rhinos and red pandas, styled as Wales's only walking safari.
- Website
- manorwildlifepark.co.uk
- Opening hours
- Today 10:00–18:00
4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Heatherton World of Activities
AttractionTenby
Free-entry, pay-as-you-play activity park at St Florence — around thirty activities from adventure golf and go-karts to a zipline and a tree-tops course, and properly dog-friendly.
Dogs welcome
- Website
- heatherton.co.uk
4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Photo: Vale Holidays (CC BY 2.0)4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Great Wedlock Farm & Deer Park
AttractionDeer-park safaris and rewilded farmland on the estate behind Tenby's Dinosaur Park — the gentle, real-animal half of the same day out.
4 miles from Cresswell Quay
The Dinosaur Park
AttractionTenby
Twenty-six acres of park and woodland at Gumfreston with over ninety life-size dinosaurs, a mile-long trail and dozens of rides and activities included in one ticket.
- Website
- thedinosaurpark.co.uk
4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo
AttractionBegelly, Kilgetty, SA68 0XA
Zoo, vintage funfair and indoor play — the county's rainy-day banker and a full family day out.
- Phone
- +44 1834 812731
5 miles from Cresswell Quay
Photo: Colin Smith (CC BY-SA 2.0)Blackpool Mill
AttractionA landmark 1813 water mill on the Eastern Cleddau, rescued and reopened in 2023 as a heritage dining destination — worth the visit for the building alone.
- Website
- bluestonewales.com
5 miles from Cresswell Quay
Photo: LinguisticDemographer at English Wikipedia (Public domain)Croes Caeriw
Attraction1.9 miles from Cresswell Quay
Tink's Flying School
Attraction4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Crocodile Coaster
Attraction4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Showing the 12 closest of 24.
Museums and galleries near Cresswell Quay
Mostly indoors, which on this coast is a category of its own. Opening hours narrow sharply out of season, so ring before you drive.
A restored WWII airfield control tower beside Carew — volunteer-run, packed with wartime detail, and moving in a way big museums rarely manage.
2.3 miles from Cresswell Quay
Nature reserves and viewpoints near Cresswell Quay
Free, open whenever you turn up, and where a lot of the best of Pembrokeshire actually is.
Jubilee Park and Nature Trail
Nature reserve3 miles from Cresswell Quay
Red Panda
Viewpoint4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Rhino
Viewpoint4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Meerkat
Viewpoint4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Giraffe
Viewpoint4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Lions
Viewpoint4 miles from Cresswell Quay
Ancient and historic sites near Cresswell Quay
Burial chambers, standing stones, holy wells and iron-age forts. Most are on open land with no gate and no charge; a few sit on working farms, so use the marked access.
Lawrenny Castle
Historic siteSite of Lawrenny Castle, the great Victorian mansion demolished in the 1950s — the terraced viewpoint above the Cleddau survives, and it's some view.
2.2 miles from Cresswell Quay
Newton North Church
Historic siteAbandoned medieval church alone in the fields near Templeton — roofless, atmospheric, and reachable by footpath.
4 miles from Cresswell Quay
The Sisters' House, Minwear
Historic siteRuin of a medieval hospice in the Minwear woods above the Cleddau — pilgrims rested here on the way west; walkers on the Knights' Way still do.
4 miles from Cresswell Quay
The Hanging Stone
Ancient siteBurial chamber hidden in a hedgerow near Burton on the Daugleddau — a proper dolmen in deepest farm country, for completists who've done the famous ones.
- Website
- megalithic.co.uk
5 miles from Cresswell Quay
Winding House
Historic siteThe old incline winding house above Saundersfoot — relic of the tramways that sent anthracite down through the tunnels you now stroll to the beach.
- Opening hours
- Open at all times
5 miles from Cresswell Quay
Flamish Chimney
Historic site1.9 miles from Cresswell Quay
Walks from Cresswell Quay
Carew Castle, the Tidal Mill and the Millpond
A flat, waymarked circuit of the millpond with a castle at one end and the only restored tidal mill in Wales at the other.
3 miles · 1½ hours · Easy
Pembroke to West Angle Bay
The longest and least-walked stage: quiet shores of the Pembroke River, the industrial edge of the waterway, then the birdlife of Angle Bay and the forts at the harbour mouth.
13.5 miles · 6–7 hours · Moderate
Pembroke Castle and the Mill Pond
A short, level loop round the water beneath one of the great castles of Britain, good for an hour with a pushchair or a dog.
2 miles · 1 hour · Easy