St Govan's Chapel

When the TOMCC goes for a day ride, it's usually Northwards into the interesting twisty bits of mid-Wales. Today, for a change, we headed into South Pembrokeshire. We hit lucky with the weather. After a few days of rain, and then a few days of cloudy drizzle, today we had warm sunshine and dryness. Perfect for a bit of recreational bend-swinging and bicyclical tomfoolery.

We met in Propellers Café at Withybush airfield, where the others had a Full English and I nursed a black coffee (Anna had done boiled eggs and toast at home, and declining it would have been an act of war). We meandered about and ended up at the beach at Freshwater West, where we had ice-creams for lunch. Mine fell onto the floor, but I didn't cry, not at all. Really. I was prepared to write it down to experience, but our Secretary, Joanna, marched back to the van and got me a new one. Sometimes women handle these things so much better.



Freshwater West. Pembrokeshire is fantastic in the sunshine.



A trio of Bonnies.

We then moved on to St Govan's Head. There is a famous chapel (St Govan's Chapel) built into the base of the cliffs here. It's quite a structure, using natural clefts in the rock and additional stonework to create a small but useable chapel nestling in a ravine about half way between the cliff top and the sea. There is no record of a St Govan, but the theory is that his name may be a corruption of Gawain, and that he was the Knight of the Round Table who came here to see out his days after the death of Arthur. Legend has it that the ravine in which the chapel is built will open and close to hide Govan from his enemies. Legend also has it that the steps down to the chapel cannot be counted. (There's a similar legend about the steps up to the church in Whitby associated with the Dracula story, and many others.) I didn't try to count them, so we will never know, but the old legs were a bit sore by the time I got back to the top of the cliff.



View from the chapel.



St Govan's Chapel.

We then split up and made our separate ways home. A short day (only about 65 miles compared to the usual 200), but a very pleasant way to spend a summer Sunday in a lovely County.