A Weekend in Pembrokeshire – Day 1
It was Anna’s birthday at the weekend so we headed off to Pembrokeshire for a treat. The original plan had been to spend a nice weekend at a Manor house, have dinner at a couple of nice restaurants, visit some attractions and for me to run along a few sections of the coast path.
So, with Friday booked off as annual leave we were heading south. Unfortunately, the original plan of driving straight to Dale for me to run along the coast path to Marloes was scuppered. Morgan had brought a cold home with him from the Big Tribute Festival and I now had it. It wasn’t too bad today but it probably wasn’t a good idea to run 12 miles or so of Coast Path so instead we had a leisurely drive down to Pembrokeshire and stopped off at Scolton Manor.
Scolton Manor
To be honest, Scolton Manor wasn’t that exciting. It was however a lovely day so we had a stroll around the woodlands, wandered around the walled garden, had lunch in the café and relaxed in the sunshine as we eased into our mini-break.
There wasn’t a huge amount going on, but it would be an exciting place to explore for children and the food was nice so we can’t complain.
Boulston Manor
With one manor house visited it was off to another. This time Boulston Manor where we had a room booked for a couple of nights. We were a little early but having looked at it on the map thought we could arrive there early, park up and go for a stroll around the area before checking in.
We were actually going to stop a little before the house itself but didn’t find that spot. So, we were soon driving into the middle of nowhere along tiny little country lanes. These turned into a long bumpy track full of ‘rural rumble strips’ (potholes!). We then came upon a gate with a keypad so pressed the button and asked if we could drive up to the house, park and go for a walk before checking in. That was fine, so the electric gate slowly opened and we made our way along the sweeping drive lined by mature woodland until we arrived at the impressive Georgian Manor. We parked outside the house where Jules greeted us and gave us some ideas of walks to go on while she continued to get our room ready.
It was now a gorgeous afternoon. Boulston Manor occupies an amazing location with a commanding view over the Western Cleddau.
The house itself sits in the middle of a major meander of the river and I think the whole area of land here is owned by the house. According to a recent property listing there are:
“approximately twenty seven acres of parkland that stretch down to the Cleddau River as well as fifteen acres of woodland running from the Lodge, either side of the drive and running down to the ponds to the east of the Front Park. The woodland provides an excellent source of fuel for the wood-burning boiler that heats the manor house.”
https://countrylivinggroup.co.uk/property/boulston-haverfordwest/
I should have had a chat to them about their biomass system seeing as that’s my job these days!
The house itself was constructed near to the original 15th century Old Boulston Manor which was owned by the prestigious Wogan family, who also constructed the nearby Picton Castle that we visited last year. We set off through the long wet grass of the field in front of the manor house, heading towards the river. Below the main house on the banks of the river we found the ruins of Boulston Church which served as the private mausoleum of the Wogan family.
From here we headed down onto the banks of the river. This weekend saw the largest tides of the year. It was now low tide so huge expanses of mud were exposed. The earlier high tide had soaked the river banks and the going under foot was very wet and muddy. We were soon in almost ankle-deep mud but had little choice but to just plough on through it. We made our way to some more ruins, this time the walls of the original Manor. Here we stopped for a bit in the shade of the trees. We’d negotiated the worst of the soggy mud now and just had a climb back up to the house.
The lurgy was taking hold by now for me though so I was tired out just from this easy stroll. It was a good job I hadn’t tried running along the coast path earlier.
After a little rest, we continued on our way, not wanting to arrive back at the house too early. I was feeling ill by now, I don’t think Anna noticed but I was even having trouble keeping up with her going up the hill! Back at the house we washed our shoes off at their outside tap and left them to dry in the sun and were taken to our rooms. Rod and Jules were lovely as they told us how everything worked and showed us around the house and room.
We had a huge room called the ‘Ascot Suite’ complete with a large sleigh-style bed, comfy sofa and sitting area and a large bathroom with a shower and a large slipper bath. We had a little chat with Rod about the muddy walk, he said to put our shoes in front of the AGA to dry off and told us that he planned to use the high tide that evening to get his boat out of the river for the winter.
We chilled in our room for a while and then decided to head into Haverfordwest for dinner.
Dinner in Haverfordwest
We drove into Haverfordwest and looked for somewhere to go for dinner. Unfortunately, I was feeling really ill by now and just couldn’t really face anything. We popped into Lidl to get some supplies for the weekend and more importantly to top up with painkillers and other drugs for me! We looked up a few likely pubs and restaurants for dinner but in the end I decided that it might be a waste as I wasn’t feeling well at all.
So, after a bit of decision making, we thought a quick trip to McDonalds would be best as it was about all I could face. So, we had a nice romantic meal in the Haverfordwest branch of McDonalds.!!
Anna ordered while I sat there feeling terrible. I know it was ‘only’ man-flu, but whenever I get such a bug, the infection seems to spread to my lungs and I get pericarditis symptoms too. Everything was hurting, my chest was killing me, my head was pounding and I felt sick. Why does this always happen when I’m on annual leave? I did feel a little better after eating something – probably due to the fact that some of the painkillers I’d bought at Lidl had kicked in rather than the food. I felt well enough for us to go back up and order pudding. Well, it was supposed to be a nice dinner out together so we may as well make the most of it!
We then headed back to Boulston Manor for a chilled evening in our room. Hopefully, I’d feel better tomorrow, although I’d already decided against any coast path running of course.
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[…] This was mainly due to not enough time for both Anna and I to go to Pembrokeshire. We did have a weekend there for Anna’s birthday during which I had planned to do a couple of legs of the Coast Path, but I had been ill and […]
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Ah no, sorry to hear the trip had such a painful ending!