Poppit Sands to Cemaes Head

The Coast Path's northern terminus is at St Dogmaels, but the walking starts properly at Poppit Sands, where the Teifi meets the sea.

The path climbs almost immediately and keeps climbing. Cemaes Head has the highest cliffs on the whole Pembrokeshire coast — around 175m — and the ground underfoot is rough, steep and often wet. This is the least-walked end of the path and it feels it.

What you get for the effort: the folded rock strata in the cliffs, which are a textbook site for geologists; a nature reserve full of choughs and peregrines; and one of the best stretches of water in Wales for bottlenose dolphins, which are resident in Cardigan Bay and regularly visible from the top on a calm day. Grey seals pup in the coves below from late August.

Looking north you can see Cardigan Island, and on a clear day the coast running up towards Aberystwyth.

Turn round at the head, or carry on south towards Ceibwr Bay if you have a lift arranged — that continuation is wilder still.

Where to finish. St Dogmaels is a couple of miles back and has the abbey ruins, Y Felin working watermill, and a pub or two. Cardigan is ten minutes further.

With a dog. Fine on the lead, but it's a long, steep pull and there's no water on the route.