Pen Dal-aderyn
Pen Dal-aderyn is the westernmost point of mainland Wales. It is in Pembrokeshire, west of St Davids. It means 'Bird-catching Head' in Welsh.
Description
[edit]Pen Dal-aderyn (grid ref SM 715 233) forms the bold, wave-cut extremity of the St Davids headland and is accepted by Ordnance Survey mapping as the westernmost point of the Welsh mainland.[1] Rising to roughly 26 m above Ramsey Sound, the headland lies 3 km south-west of St Davids and is skirted by both the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and a National Trust strip that links Porthlysgi Bay to Porthclais.[2] From the clifftop the view spans the Bishops and Clerks rocks, the tidal race of "the Bitches" and the serrated north cliffs of Ramsey Island a kilometre offshore.[3]
The promontory exposes the Treginnis Group of the late Precambrian Pebidian Volcanic Series—purplish keratophyric lavas and associated tuffs and agglomerates that dip gently south-east beneath younger Cambrian sandstones.[4] Small quartz-copper veins were trial-worked here in the nineteenth century; remnants of the Treginnis copper mine, including a part-infilled shaft just east of the point, are passed by walkers on the coast path.[5]
Recorded as Pen dal aderyn in 1843 and Trwyn Talderyn in 1840, the toponym probably fuses tâl 'end" with aderyn "bird", yielding a sense of "bird-headland"; a later folk reinterpretation connected dal with "to catch", giving rise to the literal modern translation "bird-catching head".[5] Today Pen Dal-aderyn is a waypoint for coastal kayakers negotiating Ramsey Sound's 6-knot tides and a favoured perch for cetacean-watchers scanning summer feeding lines that run between the mainland and Ramsey Island.[6][6]
External links
[edit]51°51′41″N 5°19′17″W / 51.86133°N 5.32141°W
- ^ Explorer Map OL35: North Pembrokeshire/Gogledd Sir Benfro (Map) (2023 ed.). 1:25,000. Ordnance Survey.
- ^ Landscape Character Assessment: St David’s Headland (LCA 18) (PDF) (Report). Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority. 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
- ^ "St David's Head coastal walk". Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority. 2025. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
- ^ "St Davids area". Precambrian Rocks of England and Wales (PDF). GCR Series 20. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. 2021. pp. 83–84. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
- ^ a b "Remains of copper mine, Penmaen Melyn, near St Davids". History Points. 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2025.
- ^ a b Seascape Character Assessment – SCA 17 Ramsey Sound (PDF) (Report). Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority. 2013. pp. 17-2 to 17-3. Retrieved 30 April 2025.