Druidston

Druidston Haven is the beach people drive past on their way to Broad Haven and later wish they had stopped at. Nearly a mile of firm sand runs beneath high, unstable cliffs, and because the only ways down are steep footpaths from the clifftop road, it stays quiet even in August. There is no car park worth the name, no café, no lifeguard and no phone signal in places — this is a beach for a rug, a flask and a long walk, not for a full day of family logistics.

The setting is the draw. The cliffs are soft and slumping, so the shoreline changes shape year to year; streams cut across the sand; and the whole beach faces west into the sunset over St Brides Bay. Above it sits the Druidstone, a clifftop hotel run by the same family since the early 1970s and something of an institution on this coast — bohemian, food-focused and entirely unlike anything else in Pembrokeshire.

As a base, Druidston works if you want the Coast Path from the door and are happy to drive for everything else. Broad Haven's shops and lifeguarded sand are five minutes south, Nolton Haven's slipway five minutes north, and Newgale, Marloes and the Skomer boats all within half an hour. Note the practicalities honestly: the clifftop lane is narrow, swimming here needs care because there are no lifeguards and the sea shelves fast, and in winter the exposure is real.

Clifftop houses along the Druidston road are the prize — sea views straight down the beach and a path from the garden — but supply is very small and books a long way ahead. Inland towards Haroldston and Broad Haven you will find more cottages and farm conversions with parking, still within a ten-minute walk or a two-minute drive of the sand.

Minor lanes from Broad Haven or from the A487 near Simpson Cross; the clifftop road is narrow with few passing places. Nearest station Haverfordwest, about twenty minutes by car.