Abermawr is a stretch of coastline and is regarded as a

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 ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. Abermawr is a mostly

shingle beach A shingle beach, also known as either a cobble beach or gravel beach, is a commonly narrow beach that is composed of coarse, loose, well-rounded, and waterworn gravel, called ''shingle''. The gravel (shingle) typically consists of smooth, sphero ...

with marsh and woodland behind it. It is popular with many walkers who are walking along the coast past Porthgain, Abereiddi and Abercastle. The large pebble bank of the bay was created by a storm on 25 October 1859. The currents at Abermawr can be hazardous but the headlands are low so are less gusty.

History

During the 1840s, the South Wales Railway (SWR), led by engineer

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...

, began to explore ways of constructing a rail link to the coast, opening up a passenger train route from London via the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

to link with passenger ships sailing from Great Britain to Ireland and to America. In 1847 Captain Christopher Claxton surveyed the St George's Channel to try to ascertain the best route for passenger ships to cross. Abermawr was considered briefly as the SWR railway terminal, but after surveys by Brunel, the line was re-routed to terminate at instead. An Act of Parliament to abandon these works and redirect to Neyland was granted on 17 June 1862. The remains of an incomplete

trackbed The track bed or trackbed is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links. Background According to Network Rail, the trackbed is the layers of ...

, abandoned in 1852, can still be seen at nearby Treffgarne. On 27 July 1866 Abermawr became the eastern terminal of the

Transatlantic telegraph cable Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is a largely obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and dat ...

when Brunel completed an ambitious scheme to lay a telegraph cable under the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. The cable was laid by Brunel's steam ship '' Great Eastern'' between Trinity Bay in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

and

Valentia Island Valentia Island () is one of Republic of Ireland, Ireland's most westerly points. It lies in Dingle Bay off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It then crossed Ireland via a landline before going under the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

Wexford Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...

to re-emerge at Abermawr. Telegraph operators who were stationed in a corrugated iron hut would retransmit messages to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

via the SWR and GWR telegraph wires, enabling the first ever telegraph communications between Britain and North America. A second cable was laid in 1880, this time however to Blackwater. Abermawr telegraph relay station continued in operation until 1922/3, when cables were damaged by a storm and Abermawr was abandoned. The hut still stands today and is in use as a private house. The storm of 1859 resulted in the wreck of the ship ''Charles Holmes'', commanded by Captain C. H. N. Bowlby. All the 28 people on board were drowned and their bodies washed up on the beaches of Aberbach and Abermawr.Tom Bennett (1992) ''Shipwrecks Around Wales''; Volume 2. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

the site was important in communicating with

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and was guarded by a small detachment of soldiers. However, in the early 1920s a storm damaged the site and it was abandoned. When the tide is out you can see evidence of a prehistoric forest.

References

External links

{{Commons category
National Trust - Abereiddi to Abermawr
Beaches of Pembrokeshire Coast of Pembrokeshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Pembrokeshire Isambard Kingdom Brunel buildings and structures

History

See also

References

External links