Pembrokeshire in an Emergency: Coastguard, Tides and Where to Get Help

This is the page we'd most like you to read and never need. One fact matters more than the rest of it.

Ask for the Coastguard

In an emergency, dial 999 or 112. For anything on the coast — the cliffs, the beaches, the Coast Path, the water, a boat, a person or an animal cut off by the tide — ask for the Coastguard.

Not the police, not the ambulance service. HM Coastguard coordinates coastal and maritime rescue, and asking for them directly puts you through to the people who will actually task the lifeboat, the cliff team or the helicopter.

Most visitors don't know this, and it costs minutes at the point where minutes count. If in doubt, call. Nobody minds an early call, and the Coastguard would rather stand a team down than start late.

Cut off by the tide

The commonest coastal incident here, and it happens to sensible people. Pembrokeshire's tidal range is large, the water fills coves from behind as well as in front, and a beach that looked endless at two o'clock is gone by five.

If it happens:

Stay where you are and go up, not along. The instinct is to wade or scramble around the headland to the next beach. That is how this turns serious. Get to the highest dry ground you can reach safely.

Call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. Then wait. Being stuck on a rock in daylight with a phone is a very recoverable situation.

Check a tide table before any walk involving a beach, a causeway or a stretch under cliffs, and be off it well before high water rather than exactly at it.

Cliffs

The Coast Path runs along undercut ground in places. Edges here are grass over nothing, and they fail without warning after wet weather. Stay on the path, keep back from the lip, keep dogs on leads and children on the inland side. Closures after a fall are there for a reason.

If someone goes over the edge, do not climb down. Call 999, ask for the Coastguard, and keep eyes on them from above.

In the water

Rip currents pull outwards, not under. If you're caught in one, don't swim against it — you will lose. Swim parallel to the beach until you're out of the pull, then come in. If you can't swim, float and raise one arm.

Cold water shock is the one that surprises people, and it works even in August. The gasp reflex on entry is what drowns people, not the temperature itself. If you fall in, fight the urge to thrash: lean back, float, let your breathing settle for a minute or so, then swim or shout.

Where beaches have seasonal lifeguard cover, swim between the red and yellow flags. A red flag means don't go in.

Mobile signal

Signal on this coast is patchy and in some coves absent. You may need to walk up or out to get a bar — which is another reason to go up rather than along.

A 999 call will use any available network, not only your own. If you have any signal at all, an accurate location helps enormously, so give a grid reference, a what3words address or the nearest named beach and access point. Registering your phone for emergency SMS is worth doing before a walking trip.

Medical care that isn't an emergency

Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest is the county's main hospital with an emergency department. Minor injury provision elsewhere varies and hours change, so don't drive to a unit assuming it's open.

For anything that isn't an emergency, NHS 111 Wales is free and available around the clock, and will tell you what's open and where to go. Pharmacies in the smaller towns keep short hours and many close on Sundays, so pick up prescriptions on a weekday.

Castlemartin firing range

The military range on the south coast is live. When red flags are flying, the range is in use and the roads and coast path through it are closed. Access to Stack Rocks and the Green Bridge of Wales goes with it. Check firing times before you set out, and never cross a barrier or ignore a flag.

More in practical information and walking guidance.