Walk 19: Kidwelly to Carmarthen

I’ve got to be honest: our walk from Kidwelly to Carmarthen was not good. To be clear, it wasn’t the route itself that was bad. It’s certainly not the most scenic of Wales Coast Path walks, as we didn’t get the usual sea views and had to navigate a lot of farmland, but it was still very pretty. Unfortunately, though, it just wasn’t our day, with lots of little things making us slowly more miserable as the walk went on!

In August 2022, we enjoyed a lovely stay in St Clears, where we tackled the Taf Estuary in four walks, taking us from Kidwelly to Pendine. We were fortunate to be staying with my sister, who helped us out with transport, so we were dropped off at Kidwelly station in the morning, where we began our walk. We strolled through Kidwelly, which, despite it being a pretty miserable day, was looking lovely with its colourful buildings and bunting.

After passing Kidwelly, we were soon walking through marshland, where we had some nice views. The path took us along the road for a short stretch – not the worst thing, given the wet weather – to Llansaint.

Things started to go wrong after we’d passed Llansaint. A walk along an unkempt path with lots of bracken on either side resulted in me slipping over. Thankfully, the path, and my arse, were both suitably padded, and I wasn’t hurt, just a little frustrated!

Unusually for a walk in August, a lot of the path was muddy and slippery – after navigating our way through the bracken, we had a steep walk up a forest path which felt like quite the trudge.

We enjoyed some nice views across to Llansteffan as we walked through Ferryside, but the path soon took us back onto farmland, which wasn’t the best walking as it was such a wet day.

We lost our way on a couple of occasions, most notably when we followed a very clear signpost in a field which took us towards a wooded area, but we missed the entrance to the path (clearly, we weren’t the first people to have made that mistake!). We entered the forest further down and walked right down to a stream, but we couldn’t make it over, so we had to retrace our steps before eventually finding the right path, which took us over the stream via a bridge.

By the time we had made our way out of the forest, we were feeling well and truly fed up of this walk, and it felt like nothing good could come of continuing much further. We reached a track leading up to a house, where a very friendly old dog came running over to say hello. This was definitely the best part of the day – we gave him lots of belly rubs while made arrangements to be picked up a couple of miles from Carmarthen.

After falling over, lots of trudging, and losing our way, there was really only one thing that could complete the day for us – cows! As we walked through a farm, we could see that there was a field with a big group of cows standing on a path, and were very deflated to confirm that said path was on our route. Thankfully, we spotted some farmers at work, who very kindly nudged them out of our way so we could walk past. It was comforting knowing they were there just in case anything bad happened, and we were relieved to get through the field unscathed!

To top things up, as we walked along the farm track which would take us to the road we were being picked up from, we spotted a bird in front of us who, we soon realised, couldn’t fly. They were hopping along on the other side of the track, unable to take off whenever they tried. As we walked along the track, a tractor passed us. After slowing down for a little while, having realised that the bird couldn’t fly, they decided to put them out of their misery. Probably for the best, but nonetheless, a pretty depressing end to a miserable day of walking!

We were picked up as we walked along the road towards Carmarthen. In hindsight, we could have easily made it to our planned end point, as the remainder of the walk was just along the road (instead, we added this section to the beginning of our next walk), but we were relieved to be done for the day!

Hopefully this doesn’t put you off walking this section of the path – on a sunnier day with fewer cows and dead birds, it would have been lovely! But you can’t win ‘em all!

🥾 Distance: We walked about 11 miles – if we’d finished in Carmarthen, the walk would have been around 14 miles.

⭐ Highlight: Honestly, it was the dog – but that’s not a slight on the beautiful views – we just really love dogs!

👎 Less Good: A few lowlights, but the squashed bird was the icing on the cake, I think.

🚗 Transport: We were fortunate enough to be given lifts for this one!

🛏️ Accommodation: We stayed in a lovely cottage in St Clears – Y Bwthyn – which had stunning interiors and was the perfect base for our walks!

🌱 Food: We cooked at the cottage in the evening.

🗺️ Map: This route is featured in the official Carmarthen Bay and Gower 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.