Sketches Water & Art - Sketches from north Pembrokeshire
.jpg) |
| Solva Harbour |
We arrived in Solva on Friday afternoon, staying at one of the many holiday
cottages in the village. The little River Solva ran at the bottom of the
garden. On Saturday morning (14th September), pleased that the rain we'd had on our journey from
Hampshire had now cleared - we headed
out on the first of walks along the north Pembrokeshire coast. We began by
following the lane parallel to the Solva, to the main road through the lower
part of the village, past the shops and a galley to the main car park, where the Solva flowed into the sheltered natural harbour. Here, we crossed
the footbridge to the east side of the harbour,
turning left to join the coast path up onto the hill above the harbour called
The Gribin. We took the lower of the two paths which took us onto the top of
the limekilns.
.jpg) |
| Solva lime kilns |
The geology here is Cambrian sandstones (Solva Group), deposited
in a marine environment. Presumably, they are calcareous, containing calcium
carbonate for limestone. Continuing up the hill, through trees, views down to
the harbour, with canoeists heading out of harbour. At Penrhyn headland, the path opened out to follow the cliffs. This was
the promontory between the mouth of Solva Harbour and the smaller valley near
St. Elvis’s Farm. Three were views up both valleys, and back to Solva village –
Lower Solva around the harbour, Upper Solva on hill top. Saw
our first cave in the cliffs along the coast here, formed by erosion of
the steeply dipping beds, here 45 degrees. The hard rocks and small streams,
made for very undulating coastal topography. It was good then to have cooler,
fresher weather for walking.
.jpg) |
| Near St. Elvis's Farm |
Coming down the other side of this headland to
the smaller valley, I did my first pencil sketch, looking out of the cove to
the islets. Back on the cliff tops to the east, we enjoyed views south across
St. Bride’s Bay towards Skomer Island and the St. Bride’s peninsula silhouetted
against the sun. Calm water in the bay, sun on water, through broken clouds. It
all looked very peaceful, spoilt only by the Fawley like chimneys on skyline to
the southeast. These were part of the part of the Milford Haven oil terminals /
refinery. To be visible from here, they must be pretty tall, being built well
away from the coast of St. Bride’s Bay.
.jpg) |
| St. Bride's Bay |
We then walked along steep, steeply dipping
cliffs. Despite this being tough, old (up to about 550 million years), there
was quite a bit of coastal erosion. In places, the path ran rather close to
edge. Some ominous signs at some of the gates. Hoped the cows had a sense of
gravity, we thought as we walked through the nearby field of grazing cattle.
We came to Dinas Fawr , a narrow, steep
headland. The narrow, prickly path put me off, but Munros Man went to end of it,
leaving me to do another sketch. We then had our packed lunches, overlooking
St. Bride’s Bay. Beneath the cliffs were ripples from water refracted by the
rocks. Some black, crow-like birds – they looked like crows but sounded
different; less shrill.
After lunch, we continued on towards the
steeper, inaccessible Dinas Fach headland, the far end being an islet. Here we turned
round headed back to Solva, now enjoying the views west along the cliffs,
towards St. David’s Head and Ramsey Island.
For the last bit, we took the very steep path up
from the cove near St. Elvis's onto The Gribin (this is formed of one a number
of igneous intrusions along the Pembrokeshire coast). We then followed the path
along headland, passing an artist standing at his easel doing an oil painting,
overlooking the view along the valley to the cove and islets. The sky looked
good. We took him to be local artist David Harvey. Looking round Solva after
our walk, we had a quick look in his gallery. All oils on canvas, various
sizes, though I preferred the looser, smaller paintings. He had a small studio on left of entrance, with
work in progress at easel and a table
with large tubes of oil paint. More canvases if various sizes stacked against
the wall.
Arriving back in Solva, we crossed back over
footbridge and walked along the west side of the harbour to the quay and old lifeboat
station. We had a cuppa and cookies on balcony of cafe, overlooking the harbour
and the boats in the afternoon sunshine, though but pity they'd run out of
scones before peak teatime.
.jpg)
Leaving the cafe, we followed paths up the cliff to Upper Solva, largely avoiding the main road. Good views over harbour and out to the islets from top. The holiday cottages here must be particularly sought after. To get to any premises which didn’t look like a holiday cottage, second home, or anywhere functional, we had to go well up the hill to the outskirts of Upper Solva. Here we found the village store – Solva Megastore – Tesco be Afraid - Very Afraid.
Tea in late afternoon sunshine on balcony above garden, of one of the many holiday cottages.
