Freshwater West to Stack Rocks (the Castlemartin Range section)

Every long-distance walker who does the Pembrokeshire Coast Path end to end hits this stage and has to make a decision, because the coast between Freshwater West and Stack Rocks is not ordinarily walkable.

The reason is Castlemartin Range. The MOD has trained here since 1939 and the western half of the range — Range West — contains unexploded ordnance. The Coast Path is shown across it on maps, but access is restricted: it's normally only walked on organised guided walks arranged in advance with the range authorities, with a safety briefing first, and there are limited dates. If you want to do the real thing, that's the route in, and it needs planning weeks ahead rather than on the morning.

Everyone else takes the waymarked inland alternative. From Freshwater West it heads east away from the dunes and follows lanes and road verge through Castlemartin village, then east again on the B-road towards Merrion before turning down the range road to Stack Rocks. It is honest walking rather than good walking: seven miles, largely flat, mostly on tarmac, with no pavement in places and traffic that moves quickly. Take it seriously as a road walk — high-vis is not a silly idea, and walk facing the traffic.

What it does have going for it is the countryside behind the cliffs, which almost nobody sees: big open limestone farmland, wide skies, buzzards, and the range itself off to the south with its warning signs and, sometimes, the noise of tank gunnery. Castlemartin village has a fine medieval church and a good deal of military history for such a small place.

The compensation comes at the end. The range road drops you at Stack Rocks, and within a hundred metres you're at the Green Bridge of Wales — the best sea arch in the country — with the guillemot-covered Elegug Stacks just offshore and the whole flat limestone clifftop running east towards St Govan's. If Range East is open, carry on: it's some of the easiest and most spectacular walking in Pembrokeshire.

Before you go. Firing times for the range are published in advance. Check them the day before and again on the morning, because they change. When the red flags fly, the road is gated and there is no way through.

Where to eat. Nothing on the route. The pubs at Bosherston and Stackpole are the nearest at the eastern end, and Angle at the western.

If the range is shut, the Stackpole and Bosherston circular is the reliable alternative and is open all year.