St David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire

 

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St David is a small settlement in Pembrokeshire, Wales, that has the status of a city, largely because of the cathedral of St David that is located there. It is widely quoted to be the smallest city in Britain, though the City of London is smaller in area than the parish of St David. The cathedral itself looks more like a large church, and is similar to those medieval and later parish churches that were elevated in status as the population increased in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. St David's cathedral grew from a C6 monastic community and the current cathedral was begun about 1118. Repeated rebuildings due to bad workmanship, earthquakes and neglect were necessary, and major work was undertaken in 1862 -1870 by George Gilbert Scott. To this visitor the building was a remarkably interesting oddity, not least because the undulating ground in which it is set allows a photograph that shows the cathedral from above.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Stackpole Head, Pembrokeshire

Stackpole Head is a limestone headland favoured by a number of bird species including guillemot, razorbill, herring gull, chough, raven, jackdaw, peregrine and shag. At the time of our visit the short turf above the cliffs was flecked by the lilac and pink of the sea squill and sea thrift (also called sea pink), and the cliff nesting sea birds were gathering for their breeding season.

 

The headland has stacks, caves and arches and underground collapses were easily recognised by the pits and holes in the cliff-top walk.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Low water and high water, Tenby

For twenty years of my life I lived within two miles of the sea - close enough for our windows to have salt deposited on them in windy weather. One of the lessons I learned during this time was the sheer variety of photographs that were possible during the different stages of the tides. I was reminded of this during our recent visits to Tenby in Pembrokeshire, south Wales. The shot above, taken from a slipway at high water was one of many that I took where the foregound object differed - in this case I chose a rowing boat and fishing gear.

The second shot, taken at low water, shows the interesting variety of small boats and the colourful buildings above the harbour.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Tenby harbour

 

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The town of Tenby in south-west Wales is a settlement of long standing. It is first mentioned in a poem of the C9. During the medieval period it became the site of a castle and had town walls and towers built around it. It grew to prominence as a fishing port and a significant centre of import and export. During the late C18 and C19 tourism became important to the town and it remains so today. A visitor to Tenby who parks near North Beach gets the above view as they walk into the town. The pier, slipway, lifeboat stations, Castle Hill and the colourful buildings behind the harbour's edge make a fine composition at high tide or low.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5