Camelot

Newport is at the northern end of the Pembrokeshire Coat National Park, the smallest national park in the UK. It is a land of hills' (our own "mountain" Carn Ingli is at the end of the Presceli range) and castles (Newport has its own and nearby there is Cilgerran, Cardigan and not far way the magnificent Pembroke Castle.)

The Prescelis provided the stones for Stonehenge and for the stunning Pentre Ifan just a few miles up the Nevern valley. Nearby there is a reconstructed Iron Age settlement (featured on a BBC TV series) which you can visit.

Pembrokeshire offers magnificent beaches, beautiful moorland, wild sea scapes and attractive small towns with a climate warmed by the gulf stream that is gentle if sometime a little wet and windy.

NTERESTING PLACES IN AND AROUND NEWPORT

1. THE PARROG. This is the "new port" which gave the town its English name. For 500 years herring fishing smacks and trading vessels were beached and then loaded and unloaded at low tide - we have pictures inside Camelot that show this. The largest warehouse has been converted to make the Boat Club HQ. Camelot which was an old livestock shed and our adjoining "ruin" are the only other surviving store buildings. Between Camelot and the mouth of the Nevern at Cwm, which makes an excellent evening walk, there are cottages and substantial houses served by small tracks and lanes. On your way you will pass the excellent cafe restaurant at Morawelon. At Cwm, you will find the old lifeboat station built in 1884 but abandoned in 1895.

2. THE PUBS AND RESTAURANTS. All the four pubs are worth visiting and serve excellent real ale. Our particular favourites are The Royal Oak (excellent curries) and The Golden Lion. They all serve food. You also have a choice of a number of other restaurants or cafes in the town. They vary from the expensive Llys Medic to the excellent but more simple Bronlaes Cafe.

3. THE SHOPS - as well as the well equipped Spar in Market Street there is an excellent wholefood shop, a newsagent, an antique shop. several art galleries, a first class hardware shop which also provides trekking gear and one of the best butchers in Wales.

4. NEWPORT CASTLE. The castle was built around the beginning of the thirteenth century. By the mid-1500s the castle was in ruins, and so it remained until 1859 when Sir Thomas Lloyd converted the gatehouse (overlooking the town) into a Victorian residence. It is only rarely open to the public.

5. NEWPORT’S CROMLECH - Carreg Coetan Arthur. This can be found on a private housing development at the far end of town. This is the most easily accessible burial chamber in the Newport area. Like the awesome Pentre Ifan, a few miles away up the Nevern valley, it dates from the Neolithic period, about 3500 BC and has a massive capstone balanced on just two of its four uprights.

6. THE PILGRIMS’ STEPPING STONES. If you stand on Newport bridge and look upstream you can see a series of stepping stones over the river. There was a bridge here in the Middle Ages, but according to tradition it was removed in the 1600's to prevent an epidemic from reaching the town from Nevern parish. Until 1894, the stepping stones were used at low tide and a ferry boat operated when the tide was high.

7. THE GWAUN VALLEY- This is the beautiful secluded valley on the other side of Carn Ingli from Newport where they still adhere to the Gregorian calendar and celebrate New Year's Day in the middle of January. If for no other reason, you should visit the wonderful and unique Dyffryn Arms in Pontfaen with its famous teetotal landlady Bessie Davies (but don't expect food.). You won't find a better pint of Bass anywhere!

8. SHIPHILL LIME KILN . This is typical of lime kilns that used to surround the Nevern estuary - there is also one facing onto the Parrog car park which is well worth exploring. This is a large and spectacular lime kiln on the northern shore of the estuary. Limestone fragments and culm were brought in by sailing vessels which came in on the tide and the lime was then burnt to make slake lime so that it could be spread on the local fields to reduce their natural acidity.

LOCAL FESTIVALS.

Each year Newport organises a Spring Festival over the May Day week-end with a host of cultural and sporting events; A Winter Festival which included artistic events, a concert and ice skating in early December and a Summer Carnival. Nearby Fishguard has its famous summer music festival.