St Davids is the smallest city in Britain, with 1,751 people at the last count. It is a city entirely because of its cathedral, which sits down in a hollow below the rooftops instead of standing over them. You come over the rise and it is suddenly beneath you. The Welsh name, Tyddewi, means David’s house.
11 places to stay · showing 1–10
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
A beautifully secluded holiday cottage just a short walk from the centre of St Davids, sleeping 2 — a peaceful romantic retreat.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
A delightful, tranquil B&B just three miles from St Davids, in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
A popular B&B and inn in historic St Davids — a perfect base for the cathedral and the coast path.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
Wales's first contemporary art hotel, built around an 1806 windmill in St Davids, with 39 rooms, 250 commissioned artworks and the three-rosette Blas restaurant.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
Comfortable four-bedroom lodge near Solva and St Davids with ground-floor bedrooms, sleeping 8 (and combinable for 14).
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
A 5-star luxury holiday cottage in St Davids, sleeping 6, perfectly placed for the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Dog-friendly.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
Charming period cottage in the heart of St Davids with two wood-burners, sleeping 6 — a short walk from the cathedral and coast path.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
Three-storey townhouse in Solva near St Davids with a hot tub and sweeping St Brides Bay views — sleeps 10, two dogs welcome.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
A luxurious, elegant hotel in the heart of St Davids in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Dog-friendly.
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
A charming, spacious farmhouse in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park near St Davids, sleeping 12 — ideal for groups. Dog-friendly.
Walk down to the cathedral first, and to the Bishop’s Palace standing ruined beside it. St Non’s chapel and holy well are out on the cliff to the south. Non was David’s mother. St David himself was a sixth-century monk and bishop, the patron saint of Wales, and the cathedral grew out of the monastery he founded. Tradition puts his birth on that spot, in the middle of a storm.
The coast path runs right round this peninsula, with the beaches strung along it. Whitesands is the wide one, and the one people surf. Lifeguards patrol it from late March to November, the longest season in the county. Caerfai, Porthclais and Porthlysgi are quieter. Boats go out to Ramsey Island from April to October. Only one operator is allowed to land people on it, so book before you travel.
For a hundred and eight years St Davids was not a city at all. A cathedral had always made a town a city in Britain, but the old documents proving the claim were lost, and a council reform in 1886 struck it off the list. The town council made the case again in the early 1990s, and in September 1994 the Queen restored the title.
The cathedral has never sat still. It was built on a sloping, boggy site with poor foundations, so the floor is nearly four metres out of level, and the tower fell in 1220. Bones found under it in 1866 were shown for a century as St David himself, until radiocarbon dating proved them far too young.
Ramsey Island lies off the western point, a bird reserve run by the RSPB. The sound between it and the mainland is what makes the crossing worth doing.
Between the island and the mainland is a reef called the Bitches, where the tide runs so hard it can stand a metre higher on one side than the other. It is one of the fiercest tidal races in Britain. That is why only licensed boats work the sound.
A day here is mostly outdoors. You can sit in on a service in the cathedral, walk the cliff path to St Justinian’s, or take a boat round Ramsey to see the seals and porpoises. Whitesands, ten minutes away for the surf, holds a Blue Flag again for 2026.
A cathedral sunk in a hollow, a ruined bishop's palace beside it and a boat out to an island full of birds. St Davids accommodation comes to eleven places on our books, from £60 a night, with self-catering the largest share. See the cottages, or the county at large on the Pembrokeshire page.
St Davids by type: St Davids Cottages
See all: Pembrokeshire accommodation
Browse Pembrokeshire by type: B&Bs & Guest Houses · Hotels & Inns · Cottages & Self-Catering · Lodges & Cabins · Caravan & Camping
Nearby towns: Newport, Pembrokeshire · Tenby · Fishguard · Haverfordwest · Narberth · Saundersfoot
Nearby areas: Carmarthenshire · Ceredigion
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