Pembroke Castle

Tenby is in the county of Pembrokeshire, which has a town called Pembroke. Nicola went to Pembroke College at Oxford, so you’d think there’d have been more of a connection between the college and the place, but sadly not. It took its name by being founded by the second Earl of Pembroke, but that’s it.

Pembroke Castle was an important fortification on the South Wales coast, and played a major part in the area’s history. We were dropped off by Kathryn and Alison, who were heading further afield to Carew Castle, and arranged to be picked up shortly after 12:00pm. We arrived around 10:15, just in time, once ticketing etc. had been sorted out, to join the first tour of the day at 10:30. Wendy, our guide, took us through the history of the castle in roughly chronological order, concentrating on the major personalities who had been at the castle, its battles and besiegements, and the history of the area. She majored on the women of Pembroke, many of whom were very wealthy, and how ownership of the castle was passed down through marriage and inheritance to different families, influential in the court of medieval England. She brought us up to date by describing the castle's decline and abandonment before being bought by the Philipps family in the early 20^th century, and whose family are still involved in the care of the castle through a charitable trust. 

Kathryn had told us that they were running late at Carew, so we did a quick walk of the walls and battlements (going the wrong way, it increasingly became clear!), before grabbing a cup of tea from the café. As we sat drinking tea we got a text from Kathryn saying they were in the car park, so we packed up and walked out, stopping only to take a picture of William Marshal’s statue, which is intended to show him with the Magna Carta, but actually looks like he’s checking his cell phone. 

In the afternoon we went out onto the beach at low tide, and had a look at some of the caves that are uncovered when the tide falls. We failed to find any smugglers’ caches, so spent the rest of the afternoon idling about.