Adventures in
Mid Wales & Pembrokeshire.

The two quietest parts of Wales — the empty Cambrian uplands and the sea-cliff fortress of the Pembrokeshire coast — held together by Glyndwr's Way through the middle and the only coastal National Park in the UK.

Mid Wales and Pembrokeshire share a regional rollup but are genuinely different countries. Mid Wales is the unsung interior: the Cambrian Mountains, the rolling sheep-grazed hills between Aberystwyth and Welshpool, the moors of Plynlimon. Pembrokeshire is the UK's only coastal National Park — 186 miles of waymarked coast path tracing the southwesternmost limit of the country. Four spots in the directory across paragliding, surfing, wakeboarding and hiking.

Glyndwr's Way runs 135 miles east-west through Mid Wales, from Knighton on the English border, west through Machynlleth (Owain Glyndwr's historic capital) and back to Welshpool. It's one of the quietest National Trails in Britain — some days you can walk for hours without seeing another person. Mid Wales Paragliding Centre operates in the upland country around Welshpool, taking advantage of the ridge sites that the empty terrain makes safe.

Pembrokeshire has the most concentrated outdoor activity in west Wales. The coast path is the main event — cliff scenery to rival anywhere in the UK, with peregrines, choughs and grey seal colonies. Manorbier Beach surfing on the south coast catches consistent shape; Wild Lakes Wales near Martletwy is the region's cable wakeboard park. Pembrokeshire Paragliding flies the coastal ridges from St Dogmaels; sea-cliff trad climbing at St Govan's and Lydstep is among the UK's most committing (not yet in the directory).

The region is one of the harder to reach from London — the Cambrian line covers Mid Wales reasonably, but Pembrokeshire requires either the Pembroke Dock branch or a long drive. For its inaccessibility, the reward is space; both Mid Wales and the inner Pembrokeshire coast are some of the emptiest country in Britain.