Beautiful Barafundle Bay was once one of Pembrokeshire’s best kept secrets. The locals knew this crescent-shaped golden beach of deep, soft sand, and told no-one. It was their jealously guarded piece of recreational paradise, facing east like the eye of Stackpole Warren whose long nose is Stackpole Head and its prominent chin Saddle Point.

A Blue Flag beach, in 2004 it was listed as one of the Top 12 beaches in the world, in 2006 The Good Holiday Guide described it as “the best beach in Britain.” In the same year Country Life magazine dubbed it “the best place in the UK for a picnic,” and in 2012 it again won the accolade “The UK’s Top Picnic Spot.”
Gentle waves sweep in to its sandy embrace, making it an ideal bathing place for small children, although one drawback is that the lack of road access and the uneven terrain of its approaches make it unsuitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs.

Lacking direct road access only a half mile walk from Stackpole Quay to the north and just over a mile from Broad Haven South, it is well worth the picturesque cliff-path ramble to reach it.