Wolfscastle (Cas-blaidd)

Wolfscastle sits where the A40 runs down the Western Cleddau valley between Haverfordwest and Fishguard, a village of a few hundred people with a church, a pub, a village hall and a motte — the castle mound that gives it its name — on the rise above the river. The Welsh name, Cas-blaidd, carries the same meaning.

Just north the valley narrows into the Treffgarne Gorge, where the river cuts through hard igneous rock and leaves crags and tors standing above the road — Maiden Castle and the Great Treffgarne Rocks are the obvious ones, and they look more like Dartmoor than Pembrokeshire. Footpaths climb to them from the valley floor, giving a short, steep walk with a genuine summit feel and views over half the county. The old Great Western railway line ran through the gorge, and the remains of an unfinished wartime airfield lie on the plateau above.

For visitors, this is a touring base rather than a destination. Almost nowhere in Pembrokeshire is more than forty minutes away: Haverfordwest and its supermarkets are ten minutes, St Davids twenty-five, Newgale and Broad Haven twenty, Fishguard fifteen, Newport twenty-five, and the Preselis are on the doorstep to the east. Prices are lower than anywhere coastal. The obvious drawbacks are that there is no beach and no sea, and the A40 is a busy road — worth checking how far back from it a property sits.

Mostly farmhouses and barn conversions in the lanes on either side of the valley, with parking, gardens and space for groups, plus a few village properties within walking distance of the pub. Choose something set back from the A40 if quiet matters, and expect to drive fifteen to twenty-five minutes to any beach.

On the A40 between Haverfordwest and Fishguard, one of the easiest villages in the county to reach. Clarbeston Road station, on the West Wales line, is about fifteen minutes away; Fishguard Harbour station is around twenty.