Coal seams and quiet coves
Nolton Haven
A small St Brides Bay haven where a former coal port has become a base for beach time, coast-path walking and seafront food.
- Best for
- Coast-path walking, beach time and coal-port history
- Give it
- A half day, or longer with a coast-path walk
- Don't miss
- Anthracite veins and plant fossils in the cliff-base boulders
Photo: Robert Eva · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
The Fox verdict
A small cove with an industrial past
Nolton Haven pairs a sandy-and-shingle beach with direct Coast Path access and unusually visible traces of Pembrokeshire's coal story.
Come for the cove, rock pools and coast walking, then see the former coal yard in the grassy terrace and the anthracite visible in rocks by the cliffs. The Mariners Inn offers beachside drinks and light food, while St Madoc's Church and the beaches at Druidston, Newgale and Broad Haven broaden a short stay.
Where to go
Places in Nolton Haven
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesNolton Haven to Druidston Haven Coast Path
A 1.4-mile Coast Path section along cliffs between Nolton Haven and Druidston Haven, with a steep, stepped descent at Druidston.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow 40 to 90 minutes
- Locality
- between Nolton Haven and Druidston Haven
- Access
- Follow the Coast Path on foot. Keep clear of eroding cliff edges and expect a steep, stepped descent to Druidston Haven.
Druidston Haven
A secluded sandy beach backed by steep cliffs, reached by the Coast Path or footpaths and used by a local riding school.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Druidston Haven
Newgale Sands
A two-mile beach backed by a large pebble bank, known for surfing and watersports.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Newgale
Food & drink
1 placeThe Mariners Inn
A licensed beach café at Nolton Haven, offering counter service for coffee, tea, cake, beer, wine and light food.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- on the seafront
Walks & outdoors
1 placeBroad Haven Beach
An open, west-facing sandy beach used for swimming, rockpooling and water sports.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Broad Haven
History & heritage
1 placeSt Madoc's Church
A Grade II church with medieval fabric, a fifteenth-century vaulted south porch, carved medieval corbels, and a major restoration carried out in 1876–77.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Nolton
Things to do
1 place
Nolton Haven Beach
A sandy-and-shingle cove with rock pools, a concrete slipway and cliff-base boulders where anthracite veins and plant fossils are visible.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- beside the houses and pub
- Access
- Strong currents at low tide; take care.
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Three ways to explore Nolton Haven
Signature outings
Coal beneath the cove
Look among the boulders at the base of Nolton Haven's cliffs for visible anthracite veins and fossilised plant remains.
Medieval St Madoc's
See the vaulted fifteenth-century south porch, carved medieval corbels and retained font at St Madoc's Church.
The beachside café
Pause at the Mariners Inn for a drink, cake or light food at the counter-service beach café.
The village story
Nolton Haven Village Guide
A former coal-shipping cove where the coal-yard terrace and anthracite-bearing rocks still reveal its industrial past.
The cove that shipped coal
Nolton Haven was once a coal export point. The flat grassy terrace above the beach was its coal-storage yard, while a tramway connected the haven with Trefrane Colliery over the hill in the early twentieth century. Local collieries worked seams of anthracite beneath this coast between 1850 and 1905.
The Counting House is listed today as a holiday cottage at Nolton Haven. Above the beach, the former coal-storage terrace remains a visible reminder of the cove's working past.
Seafront food and practicalities
The Mariners Inn sits beside Nolton Haven's beach, serving coffee, tea, cake, beer, wine and light food by counter service. The beachside café makes a straightforward pause after a walk along the cove.
For supplies, Newgale has beach shops and Haverfordwest has a wider choice of shops. The Puffin Shuttle coastal bus serves the cove, and a car is useful for exploring farther inland.
Walking out along St Brides Bay
The Pembrokeshire Coast Path passes Nolton Haven Beach. Head south for Druidston Haven on a 1.4-mile cliff section with a steep, stepped descent; keep clear of eroding cliff edges. The path continues towards Broad Haven. North of Nolton Haven, it runs towards Newgale's long sandy beach and pebble bank.
St Madoc's at Nolton
St Madoc's Church stands at Nolton, inland from the cove. The church has medieval fabric, a fifteenth-century south porch and extensive restoration by E H Lingen Barker in 1876–77. The old walls were largely retained, sash windows were replaced with stone tracery, and the roofs were rebuilt at a steeper pitch. The vaulted porch closely resembles the one at Roch.
Coal beneath the cliffs
At the base of the cliffs, in the boulders, you can still find veins of anthracite and the fossilised remains of plants. The coal never entirely left; it just stopped being anybody's job.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Photography credits & licences
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- File:Nolton Haven beach - geograph.org.uk - 5273084.jpg — photograph by Robert Eva; Nolton Haven beach by Robert Eva. Source record on Wikimedia Commons. Declared source image. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. File changes: Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons, resized to a maximum 1920px edge and encoded as an optimised JPEG. Display changes: Displayed with responsive CSS cropping.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Nolton Haven Beach — pembrokeshirecoast.wales other published source
- The Mariners Inn — pembrokeshirecoast.wales other published source
- St Madoc's Church — cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net other published source
- Nolton Haven to Druidston Haven Coast Path — pembrokeshirecoast.wales operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Druidston Haven — visitpembrokeshire.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Newgale Sands — visitpembrokeshire.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Broad Haven Beach — pembrokeshirecoast.wales other published source