10 Best Activities to Explore the Pembrokeshire Coast
19 Jun 2024The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park has over 100 miles of wild coastline to explore. Wondering where to begin? We’ve compiled […]
Nestled in the Abermawr Valley, the Preseli Venture Eco Barn & Courtyard Cottages are a 15-minute walk from the expansive and secluded sand-and-shingle beach of Abermawr and the cosy neighbouring cove of Aberbach. From here you can join the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, an undulating national trail that hugs the vast and varied coastline for 186 miles.
Next door is our ongoing rewilding project, planting thousands of trees to transform the meadow into a young woodland. Here, you can pitch your tent on a spacious camping pitch amongst the saplings, or enjoy the luxury of the geodome in a private clearing of ancient woodland.
Whether you stay at Preseli Venture or Preseli Glamping, you’ll be part of the buzzing adventure community. We work with the most experienced, environmentally conscious local activity providers to help you build your perfect adventure activity itinerary. We also offer a car-free activity holiday and a car-free self-guided walking holiday.
Protecting the wild Pembrokeshire Coast by exploring responsibly with local guides.
Over 35 years of operating an adventure centre here at Preseli Venture, we developed a sound model for sustainable adventure tourism which prioritises the preservation of wild Pembrokeshire Coast. Protecting sensitive habitats for coastal wildlife has always been at the heart of our ethos. Our activities and programmes were designed with an educational and pro-active approach to conservation. Meanwhile, as an active member of the Marine Conservation Society and the Pembrokeshire Outdoor Charter group, in close working partnership with the National Trust and National Parks, we were able to keep the local community and the local environment central to our operation. We have kept these principles alive in a new era of our business by carefully selecting activity providers who are passionately committed to responsible adventure.
We also developed two car-free holidays: an activity holiday and a walking holiday. Both use 100% public transport from start to finish to explore Pembrokeshire, thereby promoting green travel in the area.
Beautiful spaces with a positive impact on the environment and an ongoing rewilding project of the surrounding landscape.
Back in 2015 Preseli Venture set the standard for environmental tourism when it was the first business in Wales to be awarded the Green Key Award, the leading global certification of environmental excellence and sustainable operation in the tourism industry. At the Eco Barn, Courtyard Cottages and neighbouring campsite, Preseli Glamping, we utilise a range of green energy sources including solar panels, a ground source heat pump and an air source heat pump. But we don’t believe it’s enough to just reduce our carbon footprint, we want to go further and be climate positive. Rewilding the landscape around us has been a big part of that mission! Since 2020. We have planted nearly 2500 trees and a large wildflower meadow, transforming 5.5 acres of barren “green desert” land into a buzzing haven for wildlife, rich with habitats and abundant with food, encouraging wildlife diversity and resulting in carbon sequestration.
Outdoor adventure cultivates a deep sense of belonging, connection, excitement, friendship and inner peace.
Adventuring in the outdoors brings people closer together and helps to forge long-lasting friendships. Being immersed in nature helps you feel more deeply connected to your place in the world and your part in the ecosystems of the planet. It engendres a sense of belonging within an ancient and ever-changing landscape. Interacting with the dynamics of the weather systems and sea swell, the raw forces of nature can be humbling, exhilarating and soul-nourishing. It can instil a sense of inner peace, a sense of freedom, a sense of wonder. We so often forget to play, to explore, to take a moment to pause and take in our surroundings. The biggest reason for what we do is sharing an unlimited resource for happiness: nature’s immense and spectacular playground.
We support the local economy as part of a growing network of activity providers, and source local produce from people who we trust put the planet first.
We’re committed to creating a network of links between local businesses to support the local economy and community resliience. We work with local activity providers who share our sustainability goals and we use our local knowledge to help our guests make well-informed choices about where to source local environmentally sustainable produce.
In 1988, Preseli Venture was launched by us, Sophie and Nick Hurst. We built our dream of an adventure centre at the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park providing environmentally conscious activities in the amazing outdoor playground on our doorstep. Pembrokeshire was the birthplace of the unique activity of “coasteering” back in the 1980s, and Preseli Venture was one of the very first to bring it to adrenaline-seekers from across the globe.
Our team of local adventure aficionados grew, and soon we became the centre of a burgeoning adventure scene in Pembrokeshire, providing a sustainable model of tourism for new and upcoming guides. We offered coasteering, sea kayaking and surfing amongst other activities such as boat trips and horse riding from local partners, and curated much-loved and unparalleled all-inclusive adventure holidays for ALL types of adventurers.
After 35 years, we finally decided to hang up our wetsuits and hand the proverbial paddle over to the best guides in the local area. Having forged partnerships with the very best local guides, we now operate as an adventure booking platform, so you can book all your activities in one place, knowing we’ve hand-picked Pembrokeshire’s truly excellent companies.
At the beginning of 2024, we began refurbishing the Eco Barn and renovating the iconic Eco Lodge into several self-catering cottages, now the Courtyard Cottages. For many years, Preseli Venture has served as a vibrant space where people from all walks of life come together with at least one thing in common – a love for nature, adventure and exploring the great outdoors. By preserving the communal outdoor spaces where children can roam free and adults can gather around a bonfire with a local brew, we’ve endeavoured to keep alive the spirited dynamic of the adventure community.
From the rocky volcanic outcrop of Garn Fawr to the gnarled twisting oaks at the foot of the valley …the drowned forest at Abermawr beach, unveiled by the dropping tide to the dynamic seascapes shaping the coastline – we feel deeply connected to this landscape and we want you to feel immersed in it too, whether that means sitting on the beach and listening to the waves rolling over the pebbles, or actively exploring on an adventure activity.
Follow our story and be the first to hear about special offers by signing up to our newsletter.