Broad Haven to St Brides Haven via Little Haven

This is a manageable half-day rather than a full stage, and it takes in the prettiest village on St Brides Bay.

Start at Broad Haven and get the tide right, because there are two ways to the next village. At low water you can simply walk south along the sand and round the rocks into Little Haven in about fifteen minutes — a good walk over a shore full of rock pools, past the rock arches at the southern end of the beach. At high water that route is under the sea and you take the road and path over the headland instead. It is not a long detour but people do get caught out.

Little Haven is a single row of buildings around a small sandy cove between two headlands, with pubs on the seafront and a slipway where the lifeboat used to launch. It is more or less impossible to walk through without stopping. If you're going to eat once on this stage, eat here.

Out of the village the path climbs sharply onto Borough Head and the crowds disappear. From the top you get the full sweep of St Brides Bay: Skomer and the Marloes peninsula ahead, Ramsey Island right across the water, and the shipping working in and out of the Haven behind the headlands to the south.

The next couple of miles run past Mill Haven and Brandy Bay — steep, narrow coves with no road access and no facilities, which is the point of them. The cliff here is soft in places and the National Park has moved the path inland at a few spots where the edge has slipped; follow the waymarks rather than desire lines.

St Brides Haven at the finish is a small, sheltered pebble-and-sand cove on the northern shore of the Haven's mouth. There's a limekiln, a slipway, a National Trust parking area, and the church of St Bridget sitting a few metres above the beach — one of the most exposed churchyards in Wales, and the sea has taken bits of it over the years. There are no shops, no café and no toilets beyond the basics.

Where to finish. Nothing at St Brides. Walk back to Little Haven, or drive on to Marloes.

Doing it easy. Broad Haven to Little Haven and back along the beach, tide permitting, is under a mile each way, flat, and one of the best short family walks in the county.