Harbour entrance at Porthclais - geograph

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

inlet An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, 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 ...

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

near St Davids,

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 ...

, in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

of St Davids and the Cathedral Close.

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'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...

. 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 who are setting out to explore

St Bride's Bay St Brides Bay () 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 northern limit is ...

. Porthclais harbour has some of the best preserved remains of stone Lime kilns 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, which in turn was built on the site of a spring where it is said St. David himself was

baptised Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

References

External links

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