Caerfai_Bay

Caerfai Bay

Caerfai Bay

Human settlement in Wales

Caerfai Bay is a rocky cove on the north coast of St Brides Bay near St Davids in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. It is enclosed by steep varicoloured cliffs and has a sandy beach at low tide accessed by pathway and steps. The beach is situated in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. There is free parking above the beach with picnic benches and views of the islands of Penpleidiau, Skomer and Skokholm.[1]

Quick Facts OS grid reference, Principal area ...

Location

Caer Bwdy Bay looking southwestwards from Carreg y Barcud [Grid reference SM 77362 24228] towards Caerfai Bay. Penpleidiau headland and its islets in the near distance; The hills and islets of Ramsay Island are on the horizon.
The medieval cross in St David's city centre which stands on a comparatively recent stepped base constructed of purple 'Caer bwdy Sandstone'.

Caerfai beach is only 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) from centre of the cathedral city of St Davids. Along the coast to the west is the Chapel of St Non (51.8722°N 5.2688°W / 51.8722; -5.2688 (Chapel of St Non, Pembrokeshire)) which is the most westerly in Wales. On the eastern headland are ramparts of the Iron Age fort of Castell Penpleidiau and Caer Bwdy is next bay to the east.[2][3] Excavations by DigVentures in 2021 was the first ever recorded on the site.

Commercial activity

Caerfai Bay Caravan and Tent Park which started in the 1930s is open between March and November and has static hire, touring and camping pitches which overlook Caerfai Bay.[4] Caerfai Farm is 140 acres (0.57 km2) producing organic milk, cheeses and potatoes using sustainable energy sources, including solar, geothermal, wind and biomass energy.[5] The farm also has a seasonal shop and a campsite.[6]

Simplified geological map of Penpleidiau headland, Caerfai Bay.

Geology

Both western and eastern cliff sections display distinctive red, purple and greenish mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formations representing parts of the Caerfai and Porth-y-rhaw geological Groups of Lower to Middle Cambrian age.[7] The southern tip of the eastern Penpleidiau headland and its small islets are composed of dolerite, an Intrusive igneous rock. The intrusion is in sharp sill-like contact with baked fossiliferous Middle Cambrian (Drumian) mudstones from within the lower part of the Menevia Formation. Trilobite fossils found within the Menevia Formation at Penpleudiau include Ptychagnostus (s. l.) barrandei (Hicks), Condylopyge cf. rex (Barrande), Peronopsis scutalis cf. exarata (Grönwall), Tomagnostus brantevikensis Weidner and Nielsen,[8] T. cf. perrugatus (Grönwall), Mawddachites hicksii (Salter), Paradoxides (s. l.) illingi lake, Parasolenopleura? elegans (Illing), and Holocephalites incerta (Illing), which enable correlation with Illing's (1916) Paradoxides hicksii fauna in the Abbey Shale Formation of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England [9] and with the Tomagnostus fissus Biozone of Scandinavian biostratigraphic terminology (Rees et al., op. cit.). There are disused quarries below the car park and at Caer Bwdy Bay which provided the purple sandstone used in the original construction of St Davids Cathedral and for its more recent stonework renovation during the 1980s.[2][10] Distinctive purple-coloured sandstone of the Caer Bwdy Bay Formation (Rees et al., op cit. p. 53) was also used in the construction of the stepped mount supporting the medieval stone cross in the centre of St David's at Cross Square [Grid reference SM 75340 25323].

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Caerfai Bay". Archived from the original on 7 August 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  2. [2]
    "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. [3]
    Hare, Alistair. "Caer Bwdy Bay". Wales Beach Guide.
  4. [4]
    "Caerfai Bay Caravan & Tent Park, St Davids, Pembrokeshire – Beautiful camping and caravanning holidays in St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales".
  5. [5]
    Gossmann, Dieter (May 2007). "Caerfai Bay". Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  6. [6]
    "Caerfai Farm". Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  7. [7]
    Rees, A. J., Thomas, A. T., Lewis, M. Hughes, H. E., Turner, P. (2014). The Cambrian of SW Wales: Towards a United Avalonian Stratigraphy. Geological Society, London, Memoirs. 42: 1 – 31. https://doi.org/10.1144%2FM42.1
  8. [8]
    Weidner, T. & Nielsen, A. T. 2016. Tomagnostus brantevikensis n. sp. (Trilobita) from the middle Cambrian of Scania, Sweden. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 64, 111 - 116. https://2dgf.dk/xpdf/Bull64-111-116.pdf
  9. [9]
    Illing, V. C. 1916. The paradoxidian fauna of a part of the Stockingford Shales. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 71 [for 1915], 386 – 450.
  10. [10]
    "St Davids Cathedral: The Cathedral". www.stdavidscathedral.org.uk.
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