Naval town, waterfront story
Pembroke Dock
A planned 19th-century town where Martello towers, dockyard remains and flying-boat history meet the Milford Haven waterway.
- Best for
- Dockyard history and waterfront walking
- Give it
- A museum visit, a waterfront walk and a pub stop
- Don't miss
- The Martello towers and Heritage Centre
The Fox verdict
A naval town whose history still faces the water
Come for the dockyard, flying-boat and Millennium Falcon story; stay for waterfront walking and riverside food.
Pembroke Dock is a planned 19th-century town whose waterfront still carries the story of the Royal Navy dockyard, Martello towers and RAF flying boats. Pair the Heritage Centre with the waterfront walk and one of the riverside pubs.
Where to go
Places in Pembroke Dock
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesChurch of St John the Evangelist
A Grade II listed church built in 1846–48 in grey squared limestone, notable for drawing on local Pembrokeshire models.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Bush Street
The Shipwright Inn
A traditional waterfront pub and restaurant with estuary views, hearty home-cooked food and outdoor seating.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Front Street
Pembroke Dock Waterfront Walk / South West Wales Connected
A waterfront walk from Front Street past the two Martello gun towers, graving dock and old building slips, with estuary views towards the Cleddau Bridge.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 60 minutes
- Locality
- from Front Street along the Milford Haven waterway
Food & drink
1 placeThe Ferry Inn
A traditional riverside pub specialising in seafood, with vintage nautical decor and a terrace over the river.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- along the river
Things to do
1 placePembroke Dock Heritage Centre
An all-weather family attraction covering Pembroke Dock's maritime history, RAF Sunderlands and the Millennium Falcon.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- in the old Garrison Chapel
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Three ways to explore Pembroke Dock
Signature outings
Sunderlands and the Falcon
Explore the town's maritime past, RAF Sunderland story and Millennium Falcon connection inside the old Garrison Chapel.
Gun towers and dockyard traces
Follow the Milford Haven waterway from Front Street past the two Martello gun towers, graving dock and old building slips, then continue towards Hobbs Point for estuary views.
Seafood and Felinfoel ales
Take a riverside terrace seat at The Ferry Inn for seafood, homemade dishes and Felinfoel ales.
The town story
Pembroke Dock: from warships to flying boats
A planned waterfront town shaped by a Royal Navy dockyard, a flying-boat base and the people and pubs gathered around them.
Gun towers and a planned town
Two squat stone drums sit on the waterfront at Pembroke Dock, one of them on Front Street, each built of dressed Portland stone in the 1850s and each fitted with three 32-pounder guns mounted to swing a full circle. They were meant to defend a Royal Navy dockyard. The dockyard is gone, disarmed by 1882, and the towers now watch an estuary that mostly carries the twice-daily ferry to Rosslare.
This is a planned town, laid out on a grid of wide streets after the Navy arrived in 1814, lined with Georgian and Victorian stone terraces. One of them, the Terrace, was built for dockyard officers. The whole place has, in the words of the listing, "a coherent historic character rarely matched in other Welsh towns," which is a formal way of saying it looks like what it was.
Two pubs by the water
The pubs cluster near the water and the station. The Shipwright Inn is a corner pub on Front Street with estuary views and a beer garden, handy for the ferry terminal. It does a Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding and thick gravy, steak pie, fish pie, curries, and a home-baked cheesecake. Tripadvisor has it at 4.5 across 361 reviews, one of which calls it a "Lovely homely restaurant on the sea front."
The Ferry Inn, along the river, leans into the nautical theme and specialises in seafood, with a terrace over the water. The menu runs to Sunday roasts, steaks, hand-cut chips, and southern-fried-chicken-and-bacon dirty fries, which is a lot of adjectives for one plate of chips. They pour Felinfoel ales.
Railside ales and waterfront walking
The Station Inn is exactly what it says: a pub in the railway station building. Trains still leave from alongside for Carmarthen and Swansea while you drink. It keeps three real ales on, Young's Bitter a regular, with a new beer every Tuesday, and live music on Saturday nights. The Pembrokeshire Coast Path runs straight past the door. Up in a residential street near the fire station, the Red Rose Inn is a converted cottage with exposed beams, weekend music, and occasionally a German beer.
The walking is waterfront. From Front Street you can follow the Milford Haven waterway past the two gun towers, the graving dock and the old building slips, out to the Hobbs Point causeway and Carr Jetty, both listed, for views across to the Cleddau Bridge.
From dockyard to flying boats and Falcon
The town did not exist before the dockyard. This was farmland called Paterchurch, and there is no Domesday entry because there was nothing here to survey. Over 112 years the yard launched 263 warships and five royal yachts, then closed in 1926 despite a petition to the Prime Minister. The RAF took over for flying boats; by 1943 it was the largest operational flying-boat base in the world.
Later, in 1979, someone built the full-scale Millennium Falcon here for The Empire Strikes Back, in secret, on a site that had already been a dockyard, a garrison and an air base. You can read about all of it, the Sunderlands and the Falcon together, at the Heritage Centre in the old Garrison Chapel.
Stay around Pembrokeshire
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Pembrokeshire, linked directly to their property pages.
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.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre — visitwales.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St John the Evangelist — coflein.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- The Shipwright Inn — camra.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Ferry Inn — camra.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Pembroke Dock Waterfront Walk / South West Wales Connected — southwestwales.co operator, sector body or destination organisation