Marloes Sands can be reached via a 10 minute walk from the car park at the edge of Marloes Village. The bay here is strewn with the most extraordinary volcanic rocks with layers that were once horizontal but as a result of past geological upheavals have ended up almost vertical. The Sands are overlooked at one end by the vertiginous slopes of the small tidal island of Gateholm where archaeologists have found traces of human habitation in the form of rectangular dwellings surrounding a courtyard. The dwellings, estimated as being from the 6th century, are thought to have been an early Christian monastic settlement. Marloes Mere, just inland from the beach, is home to wetland birds. During the 18th century leeches were gathered here for medical use.
St Ann's Head, which dominates the mouth of the vast Milford Haven inlet, is home to a few whitewashed cottages, a coastguard station and a lighthouse. Approaching the headland via the coastal path from the village of Dale, the path passes a bay called Mill Bay. This bay assumed great historical significance in the 15th century: in 1485 Henry Tudor, having previously fled to Brittany to begin a 14-year exile, sneaked back into the country at Mill Bay and shortly afterwards defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, a victory which led to him being crowned King Henry VII of England.
Map of the area.
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| Marloes Sands from the top of the footpath - geograph.org.uk - 658216. Photo by Paul Mercer, via Wikimedia Commons. |
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