All walks › South Pembrokeshire Coast
South Pembrokeshire CoastBosherston Lily Ponds and Barafundle
Man-made lakes covered in water lilies leading down to a beach that regularly gets called one of the best in the world, reached only on foot.
- Distance
- 5.6 mi / 9 km
- Time
- 3 hr
- Ascent
- 180 m
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Shape
- Circular
Where it is
The circle shows the general area, not the exact start. Use the directions link below to get to the car park itself. Contours and paths shown are OpenTopoMap, drawn from OpenStreetMap data.
The route
From Bosherston, cross the lily ponds on the causeways to Broad Haven South, follow the coast path east over the headland to Barafundle, then on to Stackpole Quay and back inland.
Worth knowing
- Lilies flower from June into August. Otters live on the ponds and are occasionally seen at dawn.
- Barafundle has no road, no facilities and no bins. Everything you take, you carry out.
- The steps up from Barafundle are steep and there are a lot of them.
What you’ll see
Lily ponds and their causeways, Broad Haven South, Barafundle beach and Church Rock offshore.
Background
The lakes were created in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Stackpole estate, damming three valleys to make an ornamental landscape.