Shepherd's huts near Porthcawl with horseback riding
Beach resort Porthcawl uses sands and dunes to bait campers, but the hills behind are beautiful too.
- Porthcawl
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Shepherd's huts near Porthcawl with horseback riding guide
Overview
Part of a long, wide 20-mile band of stunning sandy beach and dunes, Porthcawl is a seaside resort coming with the usual trappings of funfair, promenade, sprawling static caravan parks and plentiful possibilities for sea swimming and watersports. Its sandy expanses really are superb with the UK’s highest dunes. But even still, this is Wales, where hill country is never far: forest-clad uplands like Mynydd Margam and Afan Forest Park with more superb walking and mountain biking are nearby. Campsites on Porthcawl’s coast tend to be large, while additional options can be found in the Vale of Glamorgan next door and out by those uplands.
Where to go
Merthyr-Mawr Warren NNR
East of Porthcawl, the coastline bends into this extensive, protected tract of vegetated dunes, which includes Wales’ highest and Europe’s second-highest sand dune and valuable habitats for wildlife. It’s a substantial section of a dune system stretching from the Vale of Glamorgan, a few miles southeast of Porthcawl, to Swansea, 18 miles northwest. The nearest pitching to this sandy wonderland can be found in Porthcawl itself.
Mynydd Margam
Mynydd Margam is a gem of a destination seven miles north of Porthcawl. Its most notable feature is Margam Country Park, a serene enclave of landscaped grounds, woods, and deer park containing a 12th-century Cistercian ruined abbey and a country house. Above the country park the land rises into forested hills, accessed by trails like the Ogwr Ridgeway Walk. You can camp alongside the country park at campsites offering designated pitches.
Vale of Glamorgan
A few miles east of Porthcawl, on the other side of Merthyr-Mawr NNR, the lovely Vale of Glamorgan occupies the coastline along to Cardiff with well-to-do villages and towns, excellent restaurants, gentle inland countryside scattered with prehistoric sites and dramatic coast replete with swooping cliffs and serendipitous sandy bays. Pitch near Dunraven Bay or historic Llantwit Major for camping close to the area’s stunning heritage coast.
When to go
The Bristol Channel onto which Porthcawl faces can take a battering from the weather at any time of year, but generally, this coast has more sun and higher summer temperatures than the majority of Wales. July is the warmest month, while late August sees seawater temperatures reach their warmest (15°C and higher). The Between the Trees Festival, held in August in the woods behind Merthyr-Mawr Warren NNR, is the liveliest of the area’s annual events.
