In the 12th century, ships sailed the short distance from the present shoreline right up to the castle's water gate. This and other details of the lives of the Norman and Welsh lords of Manobier are apparent from the writings of a man born around 1146: Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), who became one of the foremost scholars of his day.
At the time of the Norman Conquest, this was known as the Manor of Pyr, named after the abbot of nearby Caldey Island. William I awarded it to the de Barri family for their military services in subduing the Welsh. In the next 250 years under their ownership, Manobier was transformed from a monastic grange where monks worked the land into a fortress-cum-farm that provisioned garrisons at larger castles nearby.
Manobier was never attacked, and the de Barri fish ponds, mills, and dovecote continued to form part of a working farm until the 17th century, even continuing as an agricultural centre in ruins.
The dovecote building exists to this day: this cylindrical stone building has about 250 pigeon holes, enough to provide the lord's table with up to 6,000 squabs — the unfledged birds prized as the most succulent. Pigeons were an important source of fresh winter meat in the Middle Ages when only landowners were allowed to keep them. They ranged free, and it was a crime to kill or catch them.
What the rich did about the loss of pigeons to raptors is unknown, though in Gerald's day the peregrines of Pembrokeshire were among the most prized of falcons, and he describes how they were used to kill the herons that came to prey on the contents of the fish ponds.
Writers other than Gerald have found inspiration here: at the turn of the 20th century, George Bernard Shaw spent several months at Manobier taking the air and writing a successful West End play, Captain Brassbound's Conversion. Around the same time, Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf) was a regular summer visitor with her family, confiding to her diary how walking along the coast inspired her so much that all she wanted to do was write, write, write, and sitting on the sand drawing up the courage to tell her parents of the career she had chosen.
Today, the beach provides inspiration for surfers who come from miles around, as undersea rock formations force up a steady supply of large waves. The route leaves the castle and beach behind for the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, which leads to the quaintly named headland, the Priest's Nose (the outline of the rocks is said to resemble the imposing profile of the Archdeacon de Barri, though as no picture of him exists, the story is probably fanciful).
A gentle slope leads up to the half-covered remains of King's Quoit, a Neolithic burial chamber dating from around 3000 BC fashioned from local fossil-encrusted red sandstone. Its huge capstone rivals any other in Wales for size, though since this cromlech is partly covered by earth (as they all were originally), it cannot compete as the most spectacular.
The coast path comes into its own beyond the cromlech, with views far and wide across Carmarthen Bay and the Bristol Channel. Long fault lines cut the rocky coast into dangerous but fascinating crevices, some up to 100 feet (30 metres) deep.
Heather, gorse, and bracken grow in abundance along with sea pinks, seakale, ox-eye daisies, and — very unusually in this type of habitat — snake's head fritillaries. Cormorants, shags, and gulls sail past you at eye level, and eventually you arrive at a cliff overlooking an enticing sandy bay (the scramble down is worth it for those who like to swim, as the sea here is calmer than at Manobier and there is less danger of being hit by a surfboard).
The route heads inland from here, but before following it, take some time to admire the striking cliffs of Old Castle Head above the beach to the east. There is a Celtic hillfort dating from 300 BC on the headland; its builders skilfully included abrupt changes in ground level and geological faults when fortifying the site (the headland has formed part of a Royal Artillery range for many years, and access is very strictly controlled).
The return to Manobier is along a well-signposted footpath and quiet country lanes through open country, then along a minor road offering memorable views of the church, castle, and village for a good part of the way after passing Hill Farm.
Back in the village, a short climb leads to St James, the Norman church on the hill across from the castle. The church is entered down stairs through a vaulted porch containing the remains of a medieval painting, and inside are stone effigies of various lords of the manor, one of whom died on Crusade to the Holy Land.
Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.
