There and Back

We were looking forward to our trip to Bempton Cliffs, which is a nature reserve, run by the RSPB. It is best known for its breeding seabirds, including northern gannet, Atlantic puffin, razorbill, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake and fulmar.The hard chalk cliffs at Bempton are relatively resistant to erosion and offer lots of sheltered headlands and crevices for nesting birds. The cliffs run about 6 miles (10 km) from Flamborough Head north and are over 100 metres (330 ft) high at points.  Our visit to Bempton Cliffs was pure magic! There are good walkways along the top of the cliffs and several well fenced and protected observation points. We spent a great morning there and soaked up the magic of being so close to these wonderful birds. A `must` visit if in the area.  One of the many Gannets swooping past the cliff face.  I think you are getting too close..  Looking down on a Gannet swooping into it`s nest site.  ...

A `must visit` place in Pembrokeshire is the NT Stackpole estate which has some of the most stunning coastal views to be found anywhere. It’s difficult to imagine the many buildings that may have graced the Stackpole Court site over the centuries. Occupied since Norman times, the Stackpole Estate has seen its fair share of boom and bust over the centuries. The Campbell's built the early Georgian mansion of Stackpole Court in the Palladian style in the 1730s on the site of the earlier fortified house. Two world wars heralded a century of decline at Stackpole. Half of the estate, around 6,000 acres, was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence to form Castlemartin Range in 1938. Sir John Campbell II inherited the estate in 1777 and began landscaping work on a grand scale. What was once a valley was later flooded to create the Bosherston Lakes, as part of a designed landscape, and thousands of trees were planted. Thirteen years later, what was left of this historic estate ...