Walk 33: Dale to Broad Haven

We enjoyed a lovely May half term week in Pembrokeshire in 2023, where we stayed in a beautiful holiday home with views of Strumble Head, did plenty of exploring, and undertook a couple of Wales Coast Path walks, the first of which took us from Dale to Broad Haven.

We were forced to cut our previous Wales Coast Path walk short as we couldn’t get the public transport we needed on the early May bank holiday Monday, so rather than walk from Dale to Martin’s Haven, we did a circular of the Dale Peninsula. This meant that our walk to Broad Haven was slightly extended, so we had 14½ miles ahead of us. We were staying in Pembrokeshire with my sister, so she dropped us off at Dale in the morning, and we headed straight down to West Dale Bay, where we had left the Wales Coast Path on our previous walk.

We were walking on a lovely day, and West Dale Bay looked idyllic in the sunshine. We immediately took to the clifftop path with beautiful views of the bay and out to sea, and we soon got a glimpse of our next beach, Marloes Sands – an impressive expanse of golden sand stretching for over a mile.

Once we reached Marloes Sands, the path took us above the beach, where we enjoyed views across to Skokholm and Gatehold islands, with lots of beautiful wildflowers lining the path.

While the south end of the beach was very quiet, as we headed north, towards the car park, we spotted quite a few people on the beach, enjoying the sunny weather and even taking a dip in the sea! We eventually reached the end of the beach, marked by Gateholm, a small tidal island known for its Romano-British remains and featured in the film Snow White & the Huntsman.

As we continued along the path, we caught our first glimpse of Skomer, a small island that’s home to around half the world’s population of Manx shearwaters during nesting season, the Skomer vole, which is unique to the island, and the largest Atlantic puffin colony in southern Britain. The path took us towards Martin’s Haven – a small pebble beach used as the embarkation point for boat trips to Skomer – via a field with some cows in, which is not my favourite part of walking the Wales Coast Path, but thankfully they were very chilled out and not at all perturbed by people.

We reached a road which we headed down to reach Martin’s Haven, where we could see lots of people queuing for their boat trips (we also took a boat trip from Martin’s Haven during our week away, which we really enjoyed).

From the pebbly beach we headed up some steps and back onto the clifftops, with even more beautiful views to enjoy. We stopped off for some sandwiches before continuing along the path. After a short walk, we reached Musselwick Beach, a stunning sandy beach that is revealed only at low tide. Unfortunately for us, the tide was too high for us to get the full effect.

We followed the path into St Bride’s Haven, a pretty little cove with a pretty little church providing a lovely backdrop. St Bride’s Haven is sheltered from prevailing winds, and there were a few people taking advantage of this with small boats and paddleboards.

After passing St Bride’s Haven, we enjoyed even more clifftop views, including one of the most stunning shows of wildflowers I’ve seen on the Wales Coast Path – May, it would seem, is an ideal month to explore the coast!

As we continued along this section, however, things got a bit frustrating. I will caveat this by saying that we were beginning to tire at this point in the day – the sunshine was lovely but it had been bearing down on us for hours and, although we more often than not take far too much water on walks, this time, we’d underestimated how much we’d need.

We could see the end of our walk in sight, but the final section of path was really overgrown with uneven terrain, meaning we had to be really careful where we walked so we didn’t twist an ankle or fall into a hole. Perhaps unfairly, I was particularly frustrated that the walking was so difficult as this was the Pembrokeshire Coast Path – quite frankly, I expected better!

After carefully navigating the overgrown path, we reached the very pretty Little Haven, with a final short road walk taking us to Broad Haven, with its stunning sandy beach. Feeling tired and a bit dehydrated, we met up with my sister and finished the day with some pizza and lots of water at Sunshine Italian and a sunset dip in the sea – bliss!

🥾 Distance: 14½ miles.

⭐ Highlight: The weather, the views, the wildflowers.

👎 Less Good: That final, overgrown section of path.

🚗 Transport: We had lifts from my sister.

🛏️ Accommodation: We stayed at Lighthouse Watch in Strumble Head – a really lovely property with the most incredible views.

🌱 Food: Pizza at Sunshine Italian. We also had a delicious chippy tea on the beach from Off The Hook in Broad Haven on another evening.

🗺️ 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.