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Canaston Wood begins three miles west. Paths run through it and down to the Eastern Cleddau, then along the bank to Blackpool Mill. That is a Georgian corn mill inland on the river, nothing to do with the seaside town. The wood is shaded the whole way and has streams in it for a dog.

Llawhaden Castle stands four miles from the town, above the same valley. It is free, and it opens ten until four every day except 24 to 26 December and 1 January. From the walls you look out over the vale of the Eastern Cleddau and a long way past it.

Llawhaden was never really a castle in the fighting sense. Bishop David Martin rebuilt it along its present lines in the fourteenth century, as a fortified mansion for the bishops of St Davids, who were wealthy men and lived like it.

Inside there were private apartments, a courtyard, lodgings for guests and quarters for a permanent garrison. The gatehouse went up later in the same century, and it is the piece that still stands nearly to its full height.

Mills all along the Eastern Cleddau below it ground the corn for the farms around. Blackpool Mill is the last of that run still standing, and the Georgian building you see today replaced an older mill on the same crossing.

The town stops abruptly and the country starts. Ten minutes west of the last houses the road is under trees, and the only traffic is farm traffic. It is a different sort of holiday from the coast, and much of Pembrokeshire never sees it.

You can follow the bank along to Blackpool Mill, where the road crosses the river. The circular from the wood and back comes to a little over five miles. The riverside stretch is flat, though there is a climb back up to the wood at the end of it.

Llawhaden costs nothing and nobody takes a ticket, though it does keep hours. The valley below is farmland rather than moor, so the ground is easy underfoot and you can take a dog round on a short lead.

Being inland means you can pick your day. Tenby is ten miles down the road and Amroth is nearer than that, so the sea is a short drive out. Come back inland and the lanes are quiet by teatime, even in August.