Pembrey Country Park

Notes on the tour with Park Ranger Mr Gavin Hall

21st September 2001

Route

Start at the visitors centre. Go to the beach at entry point C. Head along the beach towards Llanelli. Cut across the dunes at point D. After leaving the dunes head to the bunker directly in front of you. From the bunker follow the footpath to the west through the golf course & woodland and back to the visitors centre. This route with the introduction at the visitor centre and various stops takes an hour to an hour and a half.

Pembrey Country Park

The park is built on the old Royal Ordanance factory site. The factory was critical to the war effort and was the largest TNT plant in Britain. Evidence of past military activity can be seen in some of the surviving buildings. After World War Two production of explosive was virtually stopped and the site was used to disarm shells left over from the conflict. By the early 1960’s the facility was closed. With the backing of a strong local campaign the site was designated as a country park which was formally opened in 1980. The park is evolving from a traditional country park to a tourist attraction in its own right. The park covers 520 acres and is made up of a number of landscapes, from beach to dunes to woodland and open grassland. About half a million people visit Pembrey every year making it the largest outdoor tourist attraction in the country. These people are generally local coming from places such as Swansea, Llanelli & Carmarthen. The major attraction is the 8 miles of beach that is known as Cefn Sidan.

Design of the Park

Many of the paths and roads follow the old roads and railway lines of the munitions plant. The nine car parks are connected to the beach by a series of specially designed pathways that funnel visitors to the beach while causing virtually no damaging to the fragile dune eco-system that they have to pass through. Sand dunes are very rare in Wales and this site is protected by being designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Point C

Cefn Sidan has been a Blue Flag Beach 12 of the last 15 years. The award shows that the water and beach are clean and that certain facilities and management practices are in place. The facilities include toilets and lifeguard cover in the summer and management practices relate to the way the beach is cleared and the banning of dogs from the central part of the beach.

The Beach

In the past the beach was cleaned mechanically but this destroyed the drift line. This was found to upset the ecological balance and have an effect on the dunes. The beach is very interesting. From Point C to Kidwelly the beach and dunes are being eroded. While from Point C to Burry Port the beach is being built up. Experiments have been conducted to protect the beach but these have been unsuccessful. The beach and Carmarthen Bay are important habitats for a number of birds such as Scoter, Sanderling and Oystercatchers.

Point D

At this point the dunes can be crossed using a hard core path. Originally the path which was built about 20 years ago sloped gently to the beach. But dunes move quickly and to day you have to walk up over a line of 3m high dunes to reach the beach. In the 1920’s the Forestry Commission found that the sand dunes were blowing over the areas that had just been planted with Corsican Pine and killing the young saplings. To stop the dunes moving they planted a hardy shrub from Norfolk called Seabuckthorne. Today the plant is a real problem. It spreads easily and is difficult to remove. The plant is a nitrogen fixer and is changing the soil in the dunes. This means that plants that do not normally live in dunes can now survive.

The Bunkers

The bunkers were built into the dunes during the war. These concrete buildings were made from local sand and were connected by a network of railway lines to the factories that made the TNT. The bunkers were camouflaged by the dunes from the air and sea. During the war attempts were made to destroy the factory by enemy forces. The bunkers were isolated so that if there was an explosion the factory would not be damaged and the other bunkers would not explode.

Woodlands

The majority of trees in the park are Corsican Pines. These trees are not native to Carmarthenshire. The trees were originally planted in the 1920’s to get a quick crop of low quality wood which could be used for pit props and chip wood. Since the initial planting there have been not further plantings. These trees reach full maturity in 200 years. As there has not been a continual planting programme they are all about the same age and will all die at the same time. This means that as they are the same age they offer a limited habitat for other species. The park wardens are cutting small patches of woodland down and replanting with a variety of local species so that in the future there will be a range of tree ages. This has proved to be difficult. Saplings that have been brought in to the park have found it hard to adapt to the sand and salty conditions. To overcome this seeds from deciduous trees that already grow in the area are used. This has proved to be successful but the downside is that they can only find a small number of seeds or saplings to plant every year. The timber that is felled is sold with the money going back into woodland conservation work. The wood sells for about £30 a cubic meter. It takes about eight trees to make up this weight.

When using this tour with pupils you can develop a number of points relating to the theme at KS2 addressing environmental change.

Points such as:

  • How we effect the environment
  • How we manage the environment
  • Sustainable development

come through strongly using this site.