The Dale Peninsula
As I sit to prepare this page towards the end of the month, the sky is blue and there are white fluffy clouds slowly drifting by but the forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend is not too good and we are destined for the wettest August since records began. It was a little like that too back in July when we were in Wales and Monday morning did not look too promising. Undeterred we thought it was a good day to take a drive to Haverfordwest and out along the Dale Peninsula.

The New & The Old

Following the route as described in the Ordnance Survey Travelmaster Guide "South Wales Car Tours" published by Jarrold, we left Haverfordwest on the B4327 road towards the village of Dale and passed through some flattish farmlands and a number of small hamlets. A couple of miles from Dale a section of an old road runs alongside the B4327 at a place marked on the map as Mullock Bridge.
Historic Route

This is quite an historic route but the unsuspecting could easily pass by without a second glance. It was along this route that Harri Tudur marched across Wales to the Midlands, gathering troops along the way, to defeat Richard III at Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485 allowing him to take the English throne thus becoming Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. Harri Tudur had been living in exile and had returned from France, landing at Mill Bay on the Dale Peninsula on 7 August, so he didn't waste any time travelling the 200 miles (approx) to Bosworth Field in just a little over two weeks - that's getting on for 15 miles a day across country and a hard fought battle to look forward to at the end of it.
Mullock Bridge

Mullock Bridge itself has an important part in the legend. It was here that one of King Richard's allies, Sir Rhys ap Thomas maintained his integrity and quite possibly his life too. He had promised the King that Harri would enter Wales "only over his body" and thus by hiding under the bridge duly kept his promise!
Dale

Continuing the remaining two miles to Dale, we pulled onto a car park on the shore of the Milford Haven waterway just as it started to rain. The only good thing that can be said about the heavy squall crossing from right to left is that it obliterated the distant view of the oil refinery on the opposite shore.
Skokholm & Skomer

We drove on in pouring rain to the middle of Dale and continued to the end of the road near St Ann's Head. This is purported to be, and I quote, "one of the sunniest places in Wales" with an annual average of over 1800 hours. It is also one of the windiest so how come we chose to visit it on one of the wettest? I dodged the spots as it eased a little to capture this shot of two offshore islands that are both nature reserves, Skokholm (left) and Skomer.
St Ann's Head

From the same vantage point I turned my camera to the south, engaged maximum optical zoom and focused through the gloom on the buildings at St Ann's Head. Then the rains came again and I scurried back to the shelter of the car. It wasn't until I got home and enhanced and brightened the picture that I realised there were cattle in the field! Our next port of call should have been Marloes but because of the inclement weather we gave that a miss and proceeded directly to Little Haven and Broad Haven; here too there was no respite. The streets were deserted and people were very few and far between. We passed through Broad Haven and headed back to Haverfordwest in a thunderstorm. On another day the photographic opportunities in the area would no doubt have been endless but not this particular day - still, there's always next year.
Black-headed gull

The weather did eventually clear as we made our return journey to Saundersfoot via Pembroke but the camera stayed firmly in its case. We returned to Pembroke later in the week and this image above of a black-headed gull was taken beneath the castle walls.
Pembroke

Pembroke is a busy little town and this image, also from later in the week, is of the traffic thronged main street. The main shopping area can be seen to the left of the tree and the castle where Harri Tudur was born can just - and only just - be seen in the distance.