Walk 29: Angle to Pembroke Dock

The most appropriate word to describe our walk from Angle to Pembroke Dock is ‘eerie’. This is an interesting and unique section of the coast of Wales, and one of my favourite things about the Wales Coast Path is its diversity, but it did, at times, feel a touch post-apocalyptic!

We walked this section of the Wales Coast Path on a quiet, cloudy day during our February stay in Pembroke Dock. We began our walk in Angle, which is a really lovely place. Having already walked around the Angle peninsula, we immediately headed away from Angle, towards Rhoscrowther.

We enjoyed views of Angle Bay as we walked towards the Valero Pembroke Refinery, which dominates the skyline. The path took us alongside the bay, through a wooded area and a couple of fields, before we reached the road that runs past Valero, where we passed somebody walking their dog – noteworthy as this was the only time we saw a person for several hours, which was one of the reasons the walk felt a bit unnerving!

After passing the oil refinery, we headed inland. As we walked through another section of woodland, we could hear helicopters and gunshots, which slightly made me wonder whether we would find civilisation at the end of our walk!

The path took us under a pier and through more fields. At one point, we had to pass a field that cows had access to – one of my greatest fears on the Wales Coast Path – but, thankfully, all but one cow were in the adjoining field and we were able to maintain a safe distance.

Our next unnerving encounter came in the form of two very yappy dogs! After walking through a couple of fields, the path took us out onto a road, where we could hear a large dog barking loudly. Thankfully, they were contained to a garden, so we continued onwards, into the yard of a farm.

Two very small dogs ran up to us, barking and jumping up at us. They were a little intimidating but very small, and they seemed to be showing us the way through, so we followed them into the next field. But when we got there, there was no path, and we realised we weren’t in the right place after all – we’d have to go back through the yard. The dogs were running back towards us and were clearly upset by our presence. Thankfully, we spotted the path through the trees – we had clearly been distracted by the dogs and mixed the exit. Rather than go through the yard once again, we scrambled down through the trees and back onto the path.

We continued along the wooded path and along another section of road, before the path took us down a farm track. At this point, on this short, February day, we had reached golden hour, so we enjoyed some nice views. We headed through more woodland, and back onto the road which took us down to a ford which, fortunately, was clear, and back up a hill and into Pembroke.

We enjoyed some lovely sunset views of Pembroke Castle, but, with the sunset warning us that we had very little light remaining, we continued along the path, through more woodland and fields, to Pembroke Dock.

By the time we reached Pembroke Dock it really was dark, so we headed straight to our accommodation. We had planned to walk a little further into Pembroke Dock, but we ‘finished off’ the section on a short stroll on another day.

And, in case anyone was wondering, I realised later that the siren, helicopters and gunshots were not, in fact, the beginning of the apocalypse, but were actually most likely from the nearby Castlemartin Firing Range!

🥾 Distance: Around 13½ miles.

⭐ Highlight: Pembroke Castle looked very pretty with the sunset behind it!

👎 Less Good: We felt a bit unnerved for most of the day!   

🚗 Transport: We took a taxi from our accommodation to Angle and walked back.

🛏️ Accommodation: We stayed in Pembroke Dock for a week, in two different Airbnb properties – The Coach House and Nyth Bach – both of which were lovely.

🌱 Food: We had dinner at our Airbnb.

🗺️ Map: This route is featured in the official Pembrokeshire guide.

Still not convinced? Read my ten reasons to walk the Wales Coast Path. If you’re ready to start planning your walk, you can find lots of resources to help you on your way here. Please note, I collect a share of the sales from the links on this page.