Deer Park/Marloes Half Day + Walk

deerpark_marloes:english 25/10/10 09:38 Page 1

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Deer Park/Marloes Half Day + Walk

SCALE: 0 300 600 m KEY DISTANCE/DURATION: 5.2 miles (8.4 km) 2 hours 30 minutes •••• Circular Route PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Service bus Marloes 315/316, Puffin Shuttle to Martin's Haven Pembrokeshire Coast Path CHARACTER: Reasonably level, fields and livestock, rugged coast, 790 m minor road walking National Trail LOOK OUT FOR: Views to Skomer Island • seals • sea birds • Iron Age Fort at Watery Bay Public Right of Way Car Park Public Toilets SAFETY FIRST! Bus Stop • Take great care when on the Coast Path • Stay on the path and away from cliff edges • Wear boots and warm, waterproof clothing • Take extra care in windy and/or wet conditions • Always supervise children and dogs • Leave gates and property as you find them

Martin's Haven

Deer Park

Watery Bay

Deer Park/Marloes Half Day + Walk

Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes Both Skomer, to the west, and Characteri: Reasonably level, fields Skokholm, to the south are National and livestock, rugged coast, 790 m Length: 5.2 miles (8.4 km) Nature Reserves internationally minor road walking. Public transport: Service bus renowned for their sea-bird colonies: Marloes 315/316, Puffin Shuttle to petrels, gulls, manx shearwaters Text provided by the BBC Martin’s Haven. (probably the worlds most dense Grid ref: SM757089 population), puffins, razorbills and guillemots. Peregrine, curlew, lapwing, short-eared owl and chough also Walk to the edge of the sea breed here and seals pup on the and look westward to the beaches and rocks on the island and islands... on the mainland.

Look out for: Views to Skomer The white, gannet guano covered Island, seals, sea birds, Iron Age Fort edifice of Grassholm can be made out at Watery Bay. further to the west. Jack Sound which separates Skomer from the mainland is The Marloes peninsula, like all those a well-known feeding ground for around the Pembrokeshire coast, is gannets and porpoises when running composed of harder rocks than the tides force fish to the surface. There's bays which they frame. The islands off a fine Iron Age fort on the Gateholm the coast are made of these harder promontory in Watery Bay, with three rocks as well, and so have resisted the banks and ditches to the accessible weathering effects of wind and waves. side. There are many hut circles where Skomer, off Marloes Point is composed flints and pottery have been found in of Silurian volcanic lavas dating back this area. 435 million years.

Haydyn Garlick, West Sector Ranger The Deer Park on the headland at the for Pembrokeshire Coast National Park end of the Marloes peninsula has Authority has done this walk. He says: actually never been home to deer - a "Great for sea birds - you can see walled enclosure was built for them in nesting choughs, rafts of shearwaters, the eighteenth century, but they were buzzards, ravens, peregrines and never introduced. Today the Deer Park other coastal birds. In late August and is grazed by a herd of Welsh early September, grey seals can be Mountain ponies that have helped to spotted with their pups. For those check the spread of invasive plants like people who are unable to visit any of bramble, gorse and bracken which the islands, a walk out to the Deer would otherwise cover the cliff-tops, Park can offer a feeling of being on stifling the diversity of plant and insect the islands, given its extreme westerly life. Chough need the short-clipped location; its also a fantastic position insect rich grassland and coastal heath for photographers to capture the thus created in order to feed. setting sun. The walk is very popular at all times of the year, especially with The views over to Skomer are the Rangers working in the west, magnificent (the sea around the island offering at times an exposed, yet is a Marine Nature Reserve) and from wonderful, walking experience." Wooltack Point you can see virtually all of St Brides Bay, the St David's peninsula and Ramsey Island.