Caerfai Bay | |
Location within Pembrokeshire | |
OS grid reference | SM 7606 2430 |
---|---|
Principal area | |
Preserved county | |
Country | Wales |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | HAVERFORDWEST |
Postcode district | SA62 |
Police | Dyfed-Powys |
Fire | Mid and West Wales |
Ambulance | Welsh |
Caerfai Bay is a rocky cove on the north coast of St Brides Bay near St Davids in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. It is enclosed by steep varicoloured cliffs and has a sandy beach at low tide accessed by pathway and steps. The beach is situated in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. There is free parking above the beach with picnic benches and views of the islands of Penpleidiau, Skomer and Skokholm. [1]
Caerfai beach is only 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) from centre of the cathedral city of St Davids. Along the coast to the west is the Chapel of St Non ( 51°52′20″N5°16′08″W / 51.8722°N 5.2688°W ) which is the most westerly in Wales. On the eastern headland are ramparts of the Iron Age fort of Castell Penpleidiau and Caer Bwdy is next bay to the east. [2] [3] Excavations by DigVentures in 2021 was the first ever recorded on the site.
Caerfai Bay Caravan and Tent Park which started in the 1930s is open between March and November and has static hire, touring and camping pitches which overlook Caerfai Bay. [4] Caerfai Farm is 140 acres (0.57 km2) producing organic milk, cheeses and potatoes using sustainable energy sources, including solar, geothermal, wind and biomass energy. [5] The farm also has a seasonal shop and a campsite. [6]
Both western and eastern cliff sections display distinctive red, purple and greenish mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formations representing parts of the Caerfai and Porth-y-rhaw geological Groups of Lower to Middle Cambrian age. [7] The southern tip of the eastern Penpleidiau headland and its small islets are composed of dolerite, an Intrusive igneous rock. The intrusion is in sharp sill-like contact with baked fossiliferous Middle Cambrian (Drumian) mudstones from within the lower part of the Menevia Formation. Trilobite fossils found within the Menevia Formation at Penpleudiau include Ptychagnostus (s. l.) barrandei (Hicks), Condylopyge cf. rex (Barrande), Peronopsis scutalis cf. exarata (Grönwall), Tomagnostus brantevikensis Weidner and Nielsen, [8] T. cf. perrugatus (Grönwall), Mawddachites hicksii (Salter), Paradoxides (s. l.) illingi lake, Parasolenopleura? elegans (Illing), and Holocephalites incerta (Illing), which enable correlation with Illing's (1916) Paradoxides hicksii fauna in the Abbey Shale Formation of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England [9] and with the Tomagnostus fissus Biozone of Scandinavian biostratigraphic terminology (Rees et al., op. cit.). There are disused quarries below the car park and at Caer Bwdy Bay which provided the purple sandstone used in the original construction of St Davids Cathedral and for its more recent stonework renovation during the 1980s. [2] [10] Distinctive purple-coloured sandstone of the Caer Bwdy Bay Formation (Rees et al., op cit. p. 53) was also used in the construction of the stepped mount supporting the medieval stone cross in the centre of St David's at Cross Square [Grid reference SM 75340 25323 ].
Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It also extends northwards into Greenland and Svalbard. These areas were a part of the paleocontinent of Euramerica (Laurussia). In Britain it is a lithostratigraphic unit to which stratigraphers accord supergroup status and which is of considerable importance to early paleontology. The presence of Old in the name is to distinguish the sequence from the younger New Red Sandstone which also occurs widely throughout Britain.
Ramsey Island is an island about 1 kilometre off St David's Head in Pembrokeshire on the northern side of St Brides Bay, in southwest Wales, in the community of St Davids and the Cathedral Close. It is 259 hectares in area. Ramsey means Hrafn's island.
St Brides Bay is a bay in western Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
The geology of Wales is complex and varied; its study has been of considerable historical significance in the development of geology as a science. All geological periods from the Cryogenian to the Jurassic are represented at outcrop, whilst younger sedimentary rocks occur beneath the seas immediately off the Welsh coast. The effects of two mountain-building episodes have left their mark in the faulting and folding of much of the Palaeozoic rock sequence. Superficial deposits and landforms created during the present Quaternary period by water and ice are also plentiful and contribute to a remarkably diverse landscape of mountains, hills and coastal plains.
Agraulos is a genus of Solenopleuridae trilobites that lived during the Middle Cambrian in North America and Europe, particularly the Czech Republic. The genus was named by Hawle & Corda in 1847.
Peronopsis is a genus of trilobite restricted to the Middle Cambrian. Its remains have been found in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.
The Chapel of St Non is located on the coast near St David's in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Held by tradition to mark the birthplace of St David, the ruin cannot be accurately dated but is unusual in that it is aligned north–south rather than the usual east–west. Near to the ruined chapel is a retreat, a modern chapel and a holy well. The site was protected in the 1950s and is now the responsibility of the Welsh Heritage organisation Cadw.
Straight Point is a coastal region, forming a headland, between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton in Devon on the south coast of England.
Pleuroctenium Hawle & Corda (1847) is an agnostid trilobite belonging to the family Condylopygidae Raymond (1913). The genus occurs in Middle Cambrian (Drumian) strata of Canada, the Czech Republic, England and Wales, France, and Sweden.
Condylopyge Hawle and Corda (1847) is a genus of agnostid trilobite that lived during the late Lower and early Middle Cambrian, in what are today Canada, the Czech Republic, England and Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Morocco, the Russian Federation, Spain, Turkey and Sweden. It can easily be distinguished from all other Agnostida because the frontal glabellar lobe is notably wider than the rear lobe. It belongs to the same family as Pleuroctenium but the frontal glabellar lobe does not fold around the rear lobe, as it does in that genus. Condylopyge is long ranging, possibly spanning the early Cambrian Terreneuvian Series in Nuneaton, central England into at least Drumian strata at various locations elsewhere.
Little Haven is a village at the south-east corner of St Bride's Bay, Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Together with Broad Haven to the north, Little Haven forms The Havens community for which the 2001 census recorded a population of 1,328.
Nolton Haven is a hamlet halfway along the coast of St Bride's Bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is included within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Together with the larger inland village of Nolton which is about 1 km to the southeast and the village of Roch, Nolton Haven falls within Nolton and Roch community.
The Solva Group is a Cambrian lithostratigraphic group in west Wales. The name is derived from Solva on the west coast of Pembrokeshire where the strata are well exposed in coastal cliffs. This rock succession was formerly known as the Solva Series and ascribed to the British regional stratigraphic unit ‘’St David’s Epoch’’, though these terms are now obsolete.
The Caerfai Group is a Cambrian lithostratigraphic group in west Wales. The name is derived from Caerfai Bay on the north coast of St Brides Bay on the Pembrokeshire coast where the strata are well exposed in coastal cliffs. This rock succession has previously been known variously as the Caerfai Series, Caerfai Formation and Caerfai Beds and largely ascribed to the British regional stratigraphic unit Comley Epoch, though these terms are now obsolete.
The Menevian Group is a Cambrian lithostratigraphic group in west Wales. The name is derived from Menevia, the Roman name for the St Davids area north of St Brides Bay on Pembrokeshire’s west coast where the strata are well exposed in coastal cliffs. This rock succession has previously been known variously as the Menevian Series and Menevian Beds and largely ascribed to the British regional stratigraphic unit St David’s Epoch, though these terms are now obsolete.
Plutonides is a genus of Middle Cambrian trilobite in the family Paradoxididae with species Plutonides sedgwickii and possibly Plutonides? illingi. Several other species and subspecies were at times placed in Plutonides but have subsequently been moved to other genera.
Cemaes Head is a headland and nature reserve in north Pembrokeshire. It lies in the community of St Dogmaels, within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. To the west and north it overlooks Cardigan Bay, and to the east Cardigan Island and the estuary of the River Teifi.
Bailiaspis Resser, 1936, is a Middle Cambrian (Miaolingian) trilobite genus belonging to the Family Conocoryphidae Angelin, 1854. Within the Acado-Baltic region, the genus ranges from Wuliuan into Guzhangian age strata.
The geology of Snowdonia National Park in North Wales is dominated by sedimentary and volcanic rocks from the Cambrian and Ordovician periods with intrusions of Ordovician and Silurian age. There are Silurian and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks on the park's margins. The succession was intensely faulted and folded during the Caledonian Orogeny. The region was uplifted as the North Atlantic Ocean opened during the Cenozoic. The current mountainous landscape arises from repeated glaciations during the Quaternary period.
The geology of Pembrokeshire in Wales inevitably includes the geology of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park which extends around the larger part of the county's coastline and where the majority of rock outcrops are to be seen. Pembrokeshire's bedrock geology is largely formed from a sequence of sedimentary and igneous rocks originating during the late Precambrian and the Palaeozoic era, namely the Ediacaran, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous periods, i.e. between 635 and 299 Ma. The older rocks in the north of the county display patterns of faulting and folding associated with the Caledonian Orogeny. On the other hand, the late Palaeozoic rocks to the south owe their fold patterns and deformation to the later Variscan Orogeny.
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