Industry, woodland and coast
Stepaside
A quiet holiday hamlet where conserved ironworks and an old horse-drawn railway lead through a wooded valley towards Carmarthen Bay.
- Best for
- Industrial heritage and accessible valley walking
- Give it
- A half day for the heritage park and coast
- Don't miss
- The conserved ironworks and old Dramway
The Fox verdict
A quiet hamlet with an industrial trail to the sea
Stepaside pairs conserved ironworks and colliery remains with an old railway path through Pleasant Valley.
The valley's industrial past gives the visit its shape: explore the Stepaside Ironworks and Grove Colliery site, then follow the old Dramway towards Wiseman's Bridge and Saundersfoot. Nearby choices add a beachside inn, a medieval parish church, a woodland garden and a family attraction.
Where to go
Places in Stepaside
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Old Dramway
A path following the horse-drawn railway built in 1835 to carry anthracite from Grove Colliery to Saundersfoot Harbour; the railway closed in 1939.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 120 minutes
- Locality
- Stepaside to Saundersfoot Harbour
- Access
- Flat, accessible multi-user path suitable for walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users.
Wiseman's Bridge Beach
A quiet beach on the Wales Coast Path and the site associated with Churchill and the 1943 D-Day landing rehearsals.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- Wiseman's Bridge
St Elidyr, Amroth
A Grade II* listed 12th-century church with a square Norman font sculpted with foliage and a three-storey tower in the local unbuttressed style.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Amroth
Food & drink
1 placeWiseman's Bridge Inn
A coastal inn serving real ales, bar snacks and evening meals, with a beer garden extending down to the beach and a connection to the 1943 landing rehearsals.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 75 minutes
- Locality
- on the bay
- Access
- Dogs are welcome in the Old Bar area and on the beach, but not in the restaurant or dining room.
History & heritage
1 placeStepaside Ironworks and Grove Colliery
Conserved ironworks and colliery ruins from a complex that included two blast furnaces, coke ovens, workshops and lime kilns.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- in woodland at Stepaside Heritage Park
Things to do
1 placeFolly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo
A family attraction with an indoor vintage funfair, a zoo of more than 200 species and adventure play.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 150 minutes
- Locality
- Begelly
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Three ways to explore Stepaside
Signature outings
Trace the furnaces
Explore conserved ruins from the ironworks and Grove Colliery complex among the woodland of Stepaside Heritage Park.
Eat where the garden meets the beach
Stop for real ale, bar snacks or an evening meal at the inn whose beer garden extends down to Wiseman's Bridge beach.
Meet animals and ride the fair
Pair a zoo of more than 200 species with adventure play and an indoor vintage funfair at this Begelly family attraction.
The village story
Stepaside Village Guide
From Churchill at the bay to furnaces in the woods, Stepaside's quiet valley keeps the traces of a much busier past.
Churchill at the Beachside Inn
The Wiseman's Bridge Inn has a beer garden that runs down to the beach, and in the summer of 1943 the man watching from the wall of it, cup of tea in hand, was Winston Churchill. The beaches here and at Saundersfoot were being used to rehearse the D-Day landings — up to 100,000 troops, landing craft and amphibious vehicles, in an operation called Jantzen. Churchill "is said to have watched the 'invasion' whilst seated on the wall of the pub," according to aroundtenby.co.uk, drinking his tea while the coast pretended to be Normandy.
The inn is a short walk from Stepaside proper, along Pleasant Valley, and it opens 365 days a year. Real ales, bar snacks, evening meals; dogs are welcome in the Old Bar and on the beach but not in the dining room. The wartime owner was John Henry Mathias, known as Jack the Bridge, who knew the coast well enough to be made local Coastguard and was exempted from the 10pm curfew. He entertained the soldiers with stories of a ghostly monk said to haunt the tunnels between here and Saundersfoot.
From Quiet Hamlet to Ironworks
Stepaside itself is a quiet holiday hamlet six miles north of Tenby, where wooded valleys run down to Carmarthen Bay. Old stone miners' cottages sit alongside bungalows and conversions like The Old School. It is quiet now partly because the modern A477 bypass took the through-traffic away.
It was not always quiet. From 1849 the Pembrokeshire Coal & Iron Company ran the Stepaside Ironworks here — two blast furnaces, coke ovens, workshops and lime kilns, fed by iron ore from the cliffs between Saundersfoot and Amroth. No pig iron was made after 1874 and the works closed in 1877. Grove Colliery sat alongside it, one of around twelve collieries working the valley. The ironworks and colliery ruins now stand conserved in woodland as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, part of the Stepaside Heritage Park.
Walking the Dramway and Village Life
The walking follows the industry. The old Dramway, a horse-drawn railway built in 1835 to carry anthracite down to Saundersfoot Harbour, closed in 1939 and is now a flat, wheelchair-friendly path of about 2.5 miles to the harbour. Pleasant Valley takes you through the woods to the beach — "an easy walk to Wiseman's Bridge beach through the picturesque Pleasant Valley," as the Amroth & District Community Association puts it. A short circular loops the ironworks themselves.
The village has kept the Stepaside Inn, a traditional pub with real ale and a 9.0 rating on BeerIntheEvening. The shops have mostly gone — the school, post office, garage, cobbler and tailor are all in the past tense now, and the nearest shops are a mile away in Kilgetty, which also has the nearest railway station on the Pembroke Dock line.
Parish Heritage and a Name Explained
The parish church, St Elidyr at Amroth a mile off, is Grade II* listed and 12th century, with a square Norman font sculpted with foliage and a three-storey tower in the local unbuttressed style.
As for the name, one tradition holds that Cromwell, passing through on his way to Pembroke Castle, told the people in his path to step aside. The likelier story is a narrow bridge where you simply had to.
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.
- Stepaside Ironworks and Grove Colliery — cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net other published source
- The Old Dramway — pembrokeshire.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Wiseman's Bridge Beach — visitpembrokeshire.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Wiseman's Bridge Inn — wisemansbridgeinn.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- St Elidyr, Amroth — coflein.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo — folly-farm.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation