Slate, zinc and Preseli heights
Rosebush
A nineteenth-century quarry village on the southern slopes of the Preseli Hills, with fern-clad workings, high-level walking and distinctive local food and drink.
- Best for
- Preseli walking and slate-quarry history
- Give it
- Two hours for the circular, plus food stops
- Don't miss
- Tafarn Sinc's corrugated-zinc character
The Fox verdict
Come for the walking; stay for the slate-built story
Rosebush pairs the highest point in the National Park with the remains of the quarry and railway that shaped its industrial history.
The 4.8-mile Foel Cwmcerwyn circular is the central draw, while Tafarn Sinc and Pant Mawr Farmhouse Cheeses give the village a strong food identity. Nearby Maenclochog and the Preseli prehistoric sites add church history and much older landmarks.
Where to go
Places in Rosebush
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesPant Mawr Farmhouse Cheeses
The Jennings family's farmhouse cheese producer and farm shop, established in 1983; Caws Preseli and oak-smoked Cerwyn have both won Gold at the World Cheese Awards.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Rosebush
Llys y Frân Country Park and Reservoir
A country park and reservoir offering sailing, waterside cycling, walking, an adventure play area and trout fishing.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Llys-y-frân, southwest of Rosebush
Gors Fawr Stone Circle
A late Neolithic or early Bronze Age stone circle with fine moorland views and red kites.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Gors Fawr, east of Rosebush
Food & drink
1 placeTafarn Sinc
A community-owned traditional Welsh country pub in a corrugated-zinc heritage building, with sawdust on the floor, Welsh spoken across the bar, local ales and food ranging from light snacks to hearty meals.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- in the grounds of the old railway station
Walks & outdoors
1 placeRosebush Quarry and Foel Cwmcerwyn Circular
A circular past the ruined slate quarry, workings and disused railway line, climbing Foel Cwmcerwyn, the 536-metre highest point in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 2 hours
- Locality
- Rosebush Quarry and Foel Cwmcerwyn
- Access
- The route uses forest track and open moorland, with grazing livestock.
History & heritage
2 placesSt Mary's Church, Maenclochog
A Grade II parish church rebuilt around 1790 and restored in 1880–81, holding two fifth- or sixth-century inscribed stones dedicated to the brothers Andagellus and Coimagnus.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Maenclochog, southeast of Rosebush
Pentre Ifan
The largest and best-preserved Neolithic dolmen in Wales, about 5.0 miles north of Rosebush in a straight line; the road journey is longer.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Pentre Ifan, north of Rosebush
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Three ways to explore Rosebush
Signature outings
The Zinc Pub
Tafarn Sinc brings together corrugated-zinc architecture, sawdust floors, Welsh conversation and the community buyout that saved it in 2017.
Rosebush to Foel Cwmcerwyn
Follow the two-hour circular past quarry workings and the disused railway before climbing to the highest point in the National Park.
Pentre Ifan
Travel about 5.0 miles north of Rosebush in a straight line, with a longer road journey, to the Neolithic dolmen at Pentre Ifan.
The village story
Rosebush Village Guide
A quarry village where corrugated zinc, award-winning cheese and high Preseli walking carry the story.
The Zinc Pub
Tafarn Sinc is a pub clad entirely in corrugated zinc, with sawdust on the floor and Welsh spoken across the bar. It was built in 1876 in the grounds of the old railway station, originally as the Precelly Hotel, to house quarry workers and lure Victorian tourists up into the hills. It is the highest licensed pub in Pembrokeshire, and it very nearly closed in the 2010s. The village raised the money to save it, with a shove from the actor Rhys Ifans, and it became community-owned in 2017, taking the name Tafarn Sinc — the Zinc Pub — after landlord and landlady Brian and Hafwen Davies retired following twenty-five years behind the bar. Its own website describes it as a "Hearth of hiraeth." The kitchen runs to daily specials rather than a fixed menu, caters for vegetarians, vegans and gluten-free, and pours local ales, including Seren from the brewery in the village itself.
Award-Winning Farmhouse Cheese
For a village this small, the food punches above its weight. Pant Mawr Farmhouse Cheeses has been run by the Jennings family since 1983, when David, Cynthia and Jason came back from setting up dairies in Libya and North Yemen. Their Caws Preseli and oak-smoked Cerwyn have both taken Gold at the World Cheese Awards. The cheeses have been served at the Ryder Cup, on Concorde, and at Gordon's wine bar in London. The farm shop also holds the village post office.
A Village Built on Slate
Rosebush is the highest village in Pembrokeshire, sitting at 264 metres on the southern slopes of the Preseli Hills. The name is an anglicisation of Rhos-y-bwlch, "the gap on the moor," and the whole place is a wholly nineteenth-century invention, built on slate. The quarry supplied the roof of the Palace of Westminster. When demand fell, the owners tried to reinvent the village as a spa resort, laying out ornamental grounds and a lake and advertising the bracing air. It never quite took. The lake survives at the holiday park; the quarry survives as fern-covered ruins.
Walking the Preseli Heights
The walking is the real reason to come. A 4.8-mile circular loops past the workings and the disused railway line and climbs Foel Cwmcerwyn, at 536 metres the highest point in the national park, with views said to reach Devon and Ireland on a clear day. Along the crest runs the Golden Road, a ridge trackway around 5,000 years old, passing the outcrops thought to be the source of the Stonehenge bluestones.
Getting There and a Curious Postscript
You'll want a car — the nearest station is Clunderwen, about 6.9 miles southeast of Rosebush in a straight line, with a longer road journey, and the buses through Maenclochog are limited. In June 2013, someone put an explosive device inside the village letterbox and blew it up. It has since been replaced.
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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.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Tafarn Sinc — tafarnsinc.cymru operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Pant Mawr Farmhouse Cheeses — pantmawrcheeses.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Rosebush Quarry and Foel Cwmcerwyn Circular — pembrokeshirecoast.wales other published source
- St Mary's Church, Maenclochog — coflein.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Llys y Frân Country Park and Reservoir — llys-y-fran.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Gors Fawr Stone Circle — coflein.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Pentre Ifan — cadw.gov.wales statutory register or public authority