Harbour entrance at Porthclais - geograph

Porthclais (also known as Porth Clais) is a small sheltered

inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine ...

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

near

St Davids St Davids or St David's ( cy, Tyddewi, , "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, W ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a county in the south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The county is home to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The Park oc ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, t ...

St Davids and the Cathedral Close St Davids and the Cathedral Close is a community in western Pembrokeshire, Wales. It comprises the city of St Davids and its surrounding rural area.Ordnance Survey It was established in 1987. Geography The community occupies the northwestern t ...

History

Porthclais harbour was built in the 12th century, importing coal and timber. The entire harbour is within the St David's Peninsula

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. Porthclais is still used as a small port by local fishermen and recreational sailors. The largely intact old harbour wall may have been built by the Romans, and the harbour was mentioned in the mediaeval

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, creat ...

. The earliest recorded date of trade through the port is 1385. The harbour dries out at low tide and is a good launching spot for small boats, dive craft and

kayaks A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word '' qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each s ...

who are setting out to explore

St Bride's Bay St Brides Bay ( cy, Bae Sain Ffraid) is a bay in western Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Either Skomer Island or the mainland extremity of Wooltack Point at the western end of the Marloes Peninsula marks the southern limit of the bay whilst its nort ...

. Porthclais harbour has some of the best preserved remains of stone

Lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take pla ...

s in

Harbour authority

Porthclais Harbour Authority Limited provides harbour services; the harbour can accommodate around 50 small boats and is very busy at peak times.

Facilities

There is a car park on the site of what used to be the now defunct St. Davids

gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

, which in turn was built on the site of a spring where it is said

St. David Saint David ( cy, Dewi Sant; la, Davidus; ) was a Welsh bishop of Mynyw (now St Davids) during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and tradition has preserved a relatively large amount of detail a ...

himself was

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

References

External links

Video of walk up Porthclais cliffPhotos of Porthclais and surrounding area
{{authority control Villages in Pembrokeshire