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Where to Stay in Dale: The Watersports Village and St Ann's Head
A sheltered bay, a pub on the sea wall, and the open Atlantic fifteen minutes' walk across the peninsula. Where the beds are in Dale, out at St Ann's Head lighthouse, and back at St Ishmaels.
By Pembrokeshire Guide editors · Updated 27 September 2026
Dale is the county's watersports village: a deep, sheltered anchorage inside the mouth of the Milford Haven waterway, a shingle-and-sand beach with boats on it, sailing and paddleboard hire in season, and the Griffin on the sea wall — three hundred years old, lobster from the pots in the bay, and the last pub standing of a village that once had fifteen. Walk fifteen minutes across the fields and you're on Westdale Bay, an open Atlantic beach facing straight west, which is a different sea altogether. Two miles south the peninsula ends at St Ann's Head and its lighthouse.
It's a village for people who want to be on the water, or walking the Dale peninsula and St Ann's Head circuit, and it has very few beds. Here's where they are.
The village
Dale is a row along the front and a few lanes behind: the Griffin, the sailing club, the beach, Allenbrook the guest house, and Dale Hill Farm the campsite on the hill above. Stay here and the water is at the door — the beach fronts the village, with the northern end closed to dogs from May to September and the rest open all year. Drift is the one actually in the village: three bedrooms for five, a dog allowed, and the beach, the Griffin and the Coast Path all a few minutes on foot rather than a drive down the hill. A third of a mile above, Sunray and Cliff Cottage share the open view over the bay — five in one, two in the other, a dog welcome in either, and they book separately, so two couples can take a cottage each. The remaining village listings are on the Dale page.
St Ann's Head: beside the lighthouse
The two cottages we've hand-picked in Dale aren't in the village. They're two miles south, on the Coast Path where the Haven meets the open sea, next door to the lighthouse — about as far west as a bed in Wales gets. One sleeps six across three bedrooms with the sea from all of them, a wood burner in the lounge and an open fire in the dining room, a big two-level garden with a built-in barbecue, and parking for three; the other is its neighbour with a log burner and the beam sweeping past at night. Mill Bay, the shingle cove where Henry Tudor landed in 1485, is the short walk; Dale's pub and kayaking two miles back; Marloes Sands three. Exposed, remote, and the right kind of place for a storm weekend.
Stay near Dale
Hand-picked places to stay within a mile or so, nearest first. Our picks are data-driven — we haven’t stayed — and we earn a commission when you book through a partner link. How that works.
Dale · Sleeps 5 · 3 beds
- 0.2 miles away
- Best for: Families of five · walk-to-the-pub stays
Bookable via cottages.com
Dale · Sleeps 5 · 3 beds
- 0.5 miles away
- Best for: Sailing families · sea views
Bookable via cottages.com
Dale · Sleeps 2 · 1 bed
- 0.5 miles away
- Best for: Couples · dog owners
Bookable via cottages.com
St Ishmaels: three miles back, quieter beaches
St Ishmaels, the village on the way in, is the other honest base for the peninsula. It has the Brook Inn, three of the Haven's quietest beaches on the doorstep — Lindsway Bay down cliff steps, Monk Haven through the wooded valley past the church, Sandy Haven for paddleboarding the estuary at high tide — and two houses we've written up: a three-bedroom with a fully enclosed garden, an outdoor shower and EV charging, with the pub a quarter of a mile; and a four-bedroom with a hot tub, a range cooker and a shed for boards and bikes, the pub 350 metres and Marloes Sands four and a half miles. Sandy Haven Campsite is the tent option.
Hotels and B&Bs
No hotel. Allenbrook is Dale's guest house, and Booking.com's Dale search found sixteen places when we checked in September 2026 — worth a look, not a long list. Milford Haven, ten miles, has Tŷ Milford Waterfront on Nelson Quay, the biggest hotel in the county.
Check what's free on your dates
Paid links
The list above doesn't change according to who pays us.
- Search B&Bs, inns and rooms in Dale on Booking.comvia Booking.com
Opens Booking.com's search for Dale — sixteen places when we checked (Sep 2026). Add your dates to see what is actually free.
We earn a commission if you book through these links, at no extra cost to you. We have not been paid to place them and no partner can buy a position here — they are on this page because the page is where the question comes up. Prices, availability and terms are the provider’s, not ours; check them before you book.
The beaches, honestly
Dale Beach is for getting on the water, not for long walks on sand. Westdale Bay, fifteen minutes across the peninsula, is the wide sandy Atlantic beach — and dangerous for swimming, which our beach page says plainly. Mill Bay, Watwick Bay and Castlebeach Bay are the coves on the walk out to the Head, reached on foot only. For a lifeguarded beach with a café, Broad Haven is twenty minutes' drive; for the great beach, Marloes Sands is three miles.
Without a car
The Puffin Shuttle, the summer coastal bus down the St Brides Bay coast from St Davids, ends at Dale via Marloes, which makes St Brides Haven to Dale and Dale to Sandy Haven one-way walks. Outside the season you'll want a car. See Pembrokeshire's coastal buses.
The honest bit
We haven't stayed in these places and we don't score them. The cottages we recommend are written up from the providers' own listings; the pub, the guest house and the campsites come from open data with websites where the map has them; the beach notes are ours. The Booking.com search is a paid link and is labelled as one. The other half of the peninsula is in our Marloes guide.
