This is the 12th and last post on a series about the Via Beata pilgrimage. In this post we explore the tranquil countryside surrounding St Davids, reflect on the final leg of the adventure, and celebrate the completion of the Via Beata series. It also dives into the story of St Davids: The man, the City and the awe-inspiring Cathedral that marks the end of our journey.
This post has been written in English only. For other languages, please use the Google Translation drop-down option on the right menu (desktop version).
<- Previous Post (Day 10) |
- Promote the “bonus” video to the Blog.
- The map showing the full Via Beata route.
- Walk from St Davids Cathedral to Whitesands Beach (Map)
- Circular walk from St Davids Cathedral to the Ruins of St Non (Map)
- St Davids: The Man, the City and the Cathedral.
- Provide links to useful online resources in case you want to learn more about the topics in this post (or Video)
- Provide a communication channel to enable readers and interested parties to ask questions or drop us a message through the blog.
1. The “Bonus” Video
The 28 min long video below was created as a bonus to the Via Beata series to show the beauty of St Davids and its surroundings. The images and videos that were used in the video were taken/recorded between the 4th and the 7th of August 2021.
2. The map showing the full Via Beata route.
I created 3 Google Maps for the Via Beata series. The 1st one was introduced to you on the Via Beata introduction post and I added it below again for your convenience. For more details please re-visit the introduction post where you will also be able to download the GPX file for the entire route.
The other two entitled “St Davids Cathedral to Whitesands Beach” and “Circular walk from St Davids Cathedral to the Ruins of St Non” are our 1st and 2n day walks respectively.
As the items in the map don’t appear to be clear, I’ve add a little picture below that might help.
3. Walk from St Davids Cathedral to Whitesands Beach
For those who want to walk or ride the Via Beata or a similar route from East to West as a Coast to Coast adventure, this map shows the small 2.88 Km or 1.79 miles route from the cathedral to Whitesands beach, the largest and best known beach around St Davids (but not the only one). This would also be an amazing place to end your journey, or if you prefer to start it there and do it in the other direction from West to East. We are aware of a couple of cyclists who choose to do it this way.
In the interest of full disclosure we walked to Whitesands on this day from our hotel, but I’ve created a map as if we had walked from the cathedral, which, on our walk back we did. This is an easy walk with barely any elevation at all, but when you walk back you’ll have to go up a little hill from sea level to reach St Davids again. Keep in mind that on a nice day like this day these narrow roads can be quite busy given Whitesands beach is quite popular among visitors as you’ll see in the pictures and video.
I recommend you watch the video above for a detailed description of the walk.
On this day we actually walked a little further to a beach called Porthmelgan Beach. It was in Porthmelgan Beach that Katy jumped on the water as she was very keen to swim on the north sea in the East and on the Irish Sea in the west.
You can see some of the pictures of this walk through the Map itself, but for convenience I’ve added below a gallery with all pictures Katy and I took of this walk.
Click on the thumbnail to expand picture and read about that moment. The navigation numbers below each gallery refer to the number of viewable pages in the gallery. Where possible I provided some context in every picture taken. These pictures are not to be sold or used without prior consent.
If you read to this point, I’d like to invite you to donate us a coffee for this work. We don’t sell the information, nor get any money through monetising or advertisement at the moment, so donations are this blog’s only source of income. If enough money is obtained through your generous donations that will enable us to pay for the renewal of EyeCycled.com, the hosting of the information and as a added motivation for us to keep doing this. We are very thankful for anything you can spare.
4. Circular walk from St Davids Cathedral to the Ruins of St Non
The walk on the 2nd day was a little more demanding and long. It was a total distance of 13.7 Km or 8.51 miles mostly on the coastal path. The main intention of this walk was the visit the ruins of St Non’s Chapel, which is considered to be the birthplace of St David the patron saint of Wales. St Non (or Nonita) was his mother. Tradition holds that Nonita was raped by one of the princes of the country and that the product of that rape was David. It’s said that after conceiving she remained celibate and lived on bread and water alone. When a preacher found himself unable to preach in the presence of her unborn child, this was taken as a sign that the child would himself be a great preacher. I’ll leave a link to the St Nons Wikipedia page in the description below if you’re interesting in knowing more.
This time we did start and end the walk at the cathedral. I recommend you watch the video above for a detailed description of the walk.
Before you reached the ruins you will walk passed the Holy Well of St Non. The well is said to have sprung up during a thunderstorm when St Davids was born about 500 A.D. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualities, through the numinous presence of its guardian spirit or Christian saint. I don’t think you can purchase the healing by throwing coins in the well though, but these would be pennies well spent if it works for you.
The ruin of the Chapel of St Non are just a few steps further down the track and it is held by tradition to mark the birthplace of St David, although the ruin cannot be accurately dated. The ruin is thought to be on the site of St Non’s house and to be one of the oldest Christian buildings in Wales. In medieval times the chapel was one of the main sites visited by Christian pilgrims. Following the Protestant Reformation, pilgrimages stopped and the chapel was converted into a house before being used as a garden.
After the visit to the ruins our walk continued on the coastal path until we reached the RNLI St Davids Lifeboat Station where we thought we had walked enough and decided to walk back into town.
Along the walked we passed Porthclais Harbour with its many private boats anchored and the ruins of the old Limekilns from which between 1650 and 1900 Lime was taken by horse and cart for spreading on the fields and a little was used for mortar.
This walk was on the 5th of August 2021. Since I was never a resident of Wales I can’t really tell you if the weather you see in the pictures and video is normal for this time of the year and if the vegetation shown is always present at this time, but I can tell you and that the colours are amazing, although without a doubt the pictures don’t do it justice.
I hope these 2 walks were interesting enough to instil in you a desire to visit St Davids and do the same yourself.
You can see some of the pictures of this walk through the Map itself, but for convenience I’ve added below a gallery with all pictures Katy and I took of this walk.
Click on the thumbnail to expand picture and read about that moment. The navigation numbers below each gallery refer to the number of viewable pages in the gallery. Where possible I provided some context in every picture taken. These pictures are not to be sold or used without prior consent.
5. St Davids: The Man, the City and the Cathedral
Despite of all the coastal beauty above, St Davids Cathedral is quite possibly the biggest attraction of the city of St Davids, which is said to be the smallest city in the UK. I don’t think, however, it is possible to speak about the cathedral without writing something about the man and the city 1st.
David was a native of Wales and a Welsh Christian who served as the Bishop of Menevia (which was name given to this region by the Romans). Menevia was a Diocese that covered an area of 9,716 km2 in the west of modern day Wales.
His birth date is uncertain, but believed to be between 462 and 512. He is believed to be the son of Non and the grandson of Ceredig ap Cunedda, king of Ceredigion. He is also believed to have died in 601 by more recent estimates.
Much of what is known about St David is from a biography by Rhygyfarch written in 1090, but modern historians are sceptical of some of its claims. He became reno
wned as a teacher and preacher, founding monastic settlements and churches in Wales, one of which was a monastery which later became the city of St Davids and where the current cathedral stands today.
His best-known miracle is said to have taken place when he was preaching in the middle of a large crowd and the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill. A white dove, which became his emblem, was seen settling on his shoulder. This is ironically referred as the most superfluous miracle as Wales is already a very hilly place.
David was buried at St David’s Cathedral where his shrine became a popular place of pilgrimage throughout the Middle Ages.
The monastic community which became St Davids and where the cathedral stands today was attacked many times by raiders, including the Vikings so the area saw the erection and destruction of many buildings over the centuries. It wasn’t until In 1115, with the area under the Norman control of King Henry I of England, that Bishop Bernard of St Davids started the construction of a new cathedral. In 1123, Pope Calixtus II made St Davids a centre of pilgrimage and decreed that “Two pilgrimages to St Davids is equal to one to Rome, and three pilgrimages to St Davids is equal to one to Jerusalem”. I am not sure if this decree still stands today, but in 2016 I did my own 2,000 Km pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome and I can tell you from my own experience that these are quite different.
The present day cathedral was begun in 1181 and completed not long after. Problems beset the new building and in 1220 the new tower collapsed. In 1247 or 48 the cathedral also suffered damage due to an earthquake.
Many unfamiliar with the history of the United Kingdom may not know that there was a period in time in which the monarchy was destitute of power and the country was ran as a republic called the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell which greatly affected many cathedrals and churches, and this was particularly felt in St Davids. The cathedral was all but destroyed by Cromwell’s forces and the lead was stripped from the Bishops Palace roof of which today only the ruins remain just outside the Cathedral’s grounds.
There is a pronounced slope to the floor of the cathedral, amounting to a height difference of nearly four metres between the east and west ends, and the building is still shifting minutely.
In more recent decades the cathedral underwent a number of restoration and reconstruction projects, which included creating a visitor centre within the bell tower, enlarging the peal of bells from eight to ten and the completion of the cathedral’s cloisters to house the cathedral choir, vestries, an education suite, rooms for parish use and a refectory as a reminder of the monastic beginnings.
St Davids is considered to be the United Kingdom’s smallest city by population with 1,751 residents in 2021 in the city and urban areas. St Davids was given city status in the 12th century, but lost this status in 1886. In 1994 the city status was restored at the request of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
You can learn a lot more about St Davids: The man, the cathedral and the city by visiting some of the links I’ll leave in the resources section below.
The gallery below contains every picture Katy and I took of the cathedral (mostly) and the city.
Click on the thumbnail to expand picture and read about that moment. The navigation numbers below each gallery refer to the number of viewable pages in the gallery. Where possible I provided some context in every picture taken. These pictures are not to be sold or used without prior consent.
6. Useful online resources for deepening your knowledge on the topics presented in this post.
All links open on a new window or tab.
| # | Resource Link | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whitesands Beach | Whitesands Beach Page in VisitWales.com |
| 2 | Whitesands Beach (Wikipedia). | Whitesands Bay (Welsh: Porth Mawr) is a Blue Flag beach situated on the St David's peninsula in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Wales. |
| 3 | Carn Llid (Wikipedia) | Carn Llidi is a 594 feet (181 m) rocky hill east of St David's Head in Pembrokeshire, Wales |
| 4 | Porthmelgan Beach | Page about Porthmelgan Beach on the Visit Pembrokeshire webpage. |
| 5 | St Davids Cathedral (Wikipedia) | Wikipedia Page about the St Davids Cathedral |
| 6 | St Davids Cathedral own webpage | St Davids Cathedral own webpage |
| 7 | St Davids Cathedral Timeline | The page belongs to the Cathedral's webpage above, but I thought leaving a direct link here would be convinient. |
| 8 | St Davids Cathedral in Project Gutenberg. | This page contains the history of the cathedral and some interesting old pictures , some of which were used in the video. |
| 9 | David, the saint (Wikipedia) | Wikipedia page about St David, the man, the saint. |
| 10 | St Non (Wikipedia). | St Non (or Nonita) was David's Mother. |
| 11 | Chapel of St Non (Wikipedia) | The Chapel of St Non is held by tradition to mark the birthplace of St David. |
| 12 | Porthlcais Harbour | Porthlcais Harbour page on the Visit Pembrokeshire webpage. |
| 13 | RNLI St Davids | St Davids Lifeboat Station |
7. How to get in touch with us
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