SEABIRDS, BATS AND CREATIVITY

ORIEL Y PARC in St Davids will celebrate the wildlife, art and character of the Pembrokeshire coast this May half-term with a packed programme of family events, guided walks, expert talks and local markets.

The National Park Discovery Centre will host a week of activities inspired by the landscape, giving families the chance to explore the natural world through birdsong, creativity and coastal discovery.

Throughout the holiday week, A Trail of Birds and Song will run through the centre’s woodland, courtyard and grounds, inviting young adventurers to search for hidden nests.

Children will also be able to take part in two drop-in Make & Take sessions, creating woodland window art on Wednesday (May 27) and clay seabirds on Thursday (May 28).

The highlight of the week will be Seabirds Discovery Day on Thursday (May 28), bringing the wildlife of the Pembrokeshire coast to Oriel y Parc through expert talks, demonstrations, guided walking and family-friendly discovery.

A courtyard market will run from 10:00am to 3:00pm, alongside a series of expert-led events.

Greg Morgan, RSPB Cymru Detection Dog Handler for the Biosecurity for Wales project, will speak about the role specially trained dogs play in protecting Wales’s seabird islands. This will be followed by free demonstrations from Jinx, the biosecurity detection dog.

The Discovery Day will also include a guided walk and talk from Caerfai to St Non’s, led by National Park Authority Ranger Libby, a former Seabird Island Ranger.

National Park Authority Ranger Chris, a former Skomer Warden, will also give visitors an insight into life on the island, its internationally important seabird populations and the pressures they face in a changing climate.

As dusk falls, attention will turn from the coastline to the night sky, with a guided Brilliant Bats walk around St Davids.

Some Seabirds Discovery Day events have limited numbers and booking is essential. Further information is available at www.orielyparc.co.uk.

Alongside the events, visitors can explore a range of exhibitions, including Garry Fabian Miller’s light-filled Môrwelion / The Sea Horizon, Dafydd Wyn Richards’ new paintings of the Pembrokeshire coast, and locally inspired work by Jo Thomas of Pembrokeshire Craft Makers.

In the Tower, Celebrating the Mischief of Rooks by Jackie Morris and Elly Morgan focuses on the noise, movement and character of the rooks around Oriel y Parc, with paintings and ceramics inspired by the birds that gather in the surrounding trees.

The half-term programme also includes two courtyard markets featuring local stallholders, handmade crafts and produce. Makers Bizarre returns on Tuesday (May 26), followed by the May Craft Market on Saturday (May 30), with free entry to both.

The Manager of Oriel y Parc, Rachel Perkins said: “Pembrokeshire is a landscape of constant discovery. This May we are peeling back the layers of the coast to reveal the vital work and wild secrets that make this National Park unique.

“From the dogs guarding our islands to the bats of the Cathedral, it is an invitation to see this world-class environment through fresh eyes.”

Father and son Gareth and Daniel Willington honoured by fishing and rugby communities

A DECADE has passed since the Harvester fishing tragedy claimed the lives of father and son Gareth and Daniel Willington.

The pair, remembered as skilled fishermen, much-loved family members and cherished friends, remain deeply missed across the Welsh fishing community.

Gareth, 59, and Daniel, 32, left Milford Haven Docks in the early hours of Thursday (Apr 28), 2016, aboard the fishing vessel Harvester.

They were fishing for crab and lobster when the vessel got into difficulty off the north Pembrokeshire coast, near St Davids Head and Abereiddy.

The alarm was raised at around 2:30pm after reports of a fishing boat in trouble. A major search operation was launched involving the Coastguard, RNLI lifeboats and emergency services.

Gareth was recovered from the sea later that day and taken to Withybush Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Daniel was never found, despite extensive searches by rescue teams and local fishing vessels.

A later Marine Accident Investigation Branch report concluded that the most likely scenario was that Daniel became caught in rope while working on deck, and that Gareth went to help him, resulting in both men going overboard.

Neither man was wearing a personal flotation device at the time. The tragedy later led to renewed calls for stronger safety measures for fishermen working at sea.

The Fishermen’s Mission marked the anniversary today, saying Gareth and Daniel’s loved ones remain in their thoughts as the charity honoured the legacy they left behind in Welsh fishing — pysgota Cymru.

Their memory is also kept alive each year through the Willington Slate Trophy, contested by Pembroke Rugby Club and St Davids Rugby Club over two league matches.

The annual tradition not only remembers Gareth and Daniel, but also raises vital funds for The Fishermen’s Mission and the RNLI.

Supporters are being encouraged to look out for upcoming fixtures later in the year and to join the rugby and fishing communities in commemorating the Willingtons and their lives at sea.

Photo caption: Remembered at sea: Gareth and Daniel Willington, whose loss is still felt ten years after the Harvester fishing tragedy (Pic: The Willington family).

CLAIMS Tenby’s Brynhir housing development will house “illegal immigrants” through purchases by an English council have been refuted by Pembrokeshire County Council.

Back in 2024, the scheme, with nearly 100 “local houses for local people” was approved by national park planners.

In 2018, Pembrokeshire County Council, which already owned the 15-acre Brynhir site on the edge of Tenby, ‘bought’ the land for £4million using its Housing Revenue Account.

Campaigners fought a two-year battle against the use of the land for housing, calling for protection for ‘Tenby’s last green space’ and fearing it would become a ‘concrete jungle’.

The county council was granted outline planning permission by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority for the development of 144 properties – including up to 102 affordable units – in 2020.

The later 2024 scheme proposed that only 125 houses be built, 93 of them affordable, and, of the 32 open market dwellings, 16 are shared ownership properties.

Tenby Civic Society has raised numerous concerns to the scheme and 20 objections were also received from members of the public, raising concerns including loss of green space, traffic issues, privacy, design, visual impacts and the scale of the development, sewage capacity, the site being no longer allocated for housing, potential antisocial behaviour within the play area, and a limitation on second homes/holiday lets being required.

At the September meeting, concerns about the proposal were raised by Jane Merrony of 1,100-member Tenby Green Space Preservation Society, who said it was inappropriate in its proposed location and “a visual intrusion which will be seen from Caldey Island”.

Since that approval, initial construction for the site started late last year.

The full development is set to be finished by 2029.

However, fears have been raised that some of the site will house “illegal immigrants” via an English council.

A member of the public raised their concerns saying: “Unconfirmed rumours have it that Liverpool City Council has bought houses in the development as their waiting list is so long due to illegal immigrants being housed in their stock, making it a 10-year waiting list to get local housing in Liverpool.

“Does this mean that Liverpool City Council will be offloading illegals onto the Tenby social housing?”

They added: “When the planning permission was going through, we were informed that all the housing would be mixed council, open-market and association houses with a covenant saying that you had to live, work or have links to the area to be considered for any of the units.”

Responding, a Pembrokeshire County Council spokesperson said: “These rumours are untrue. This site is owned and managed by the local authority. Allocations will be made to those from our Choice Homes register in accordance with a local connection lettings policy that will be developed in conjunction with the local town and community councils, and local community, in due course.”