Fishguard and Goodwick

Fishguard Cliffs

Site of Special Scientific Interest
Location within Pembrokeshire
Location	Pembrokeshire
Grid reference	SM 958375
Coordinates	51.9983°N 4.9760°W / 51.9983; -4.9760
Interest	Geological
Area	6.7 hectares (17 acres)
Notification	1954

The cliffs below Castle Point

The cliffs either side of Fishguard Lower Town harbour are an SSSI notable for its geology. From Saddle Point on the western side, round to Castle Point on the eastern headland,[15] the geology has legal protection because of its notable Ordovician pillow lava, in which the Llanvirn series is well demonstrated. Many of the rocks of Pembrokeshire have their origins some 460 million years ago in vast volcanic outpourings of ash and tuff, and more rarely flows of lava, which, as here, cooled into a number of pillow formations.[16]

Although the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park includes almost all of the coastline, it has three gaps, of which one is Fishguard and Goodwick. Most of the Community is excluded from National Park jurisdiction. Several lengths of the Community boundary are also the boundary to the National Park, both to east and west. Only two small areas of the Community are within the National Park, these being: the Castle point headland north of the A487 to the east; and the northwest end of the community along the Pen Anglas headland of Strumble Head. For these areas, the Park is the legal Planning Authority, unlike the rest of the Community, for which Pembrokeshire County Council has that responsibility.[17]

Garn Wen Cromlechs

Pen Rhiw Cromlech: a broad, low-lying cromlech in a field north of Pen-rhiw farm, Goodwick.

Old fort, Castle Point, Fishguard

There are three scheduled monuments in the community. Two chambered tomb sites are prehistoric, and the Old Castle is a post-medieval site:-

• Garn Wen Burial Chambers; A line of four Chambered tombs forming a neolithic cemetery on the hillside above the ferry terminal at 52.0117°N 4.9909°W / 52.0117; -4.9909 (Garn Wen Burial Chambers) [18] A nearby car park amongst the housing estate provides an access to the footpath that runs past them.
• Pen-Rhiw Burial Chamber: A neolithic Cromlech with a large capstone in a grassy field north of Pen-rhiw farm, west of Goodrick at 52.0119°N 4.9999°W / 52.0119; -4.9999 (Pen-Rhiw Burial Chamber), (SM942390)[19]
• Castle Point Old Fort, 52.0013°N 4.9705°W / 52.0013; -4.9705 (Castle Point Old Fort), (SM961378) was built in 1780s amidst fears of Napoleonic invasion. It now has a selection of canons housed on the ramparts.

Hermon Baptist Church, Fishguard

Two buildings within the community are listed grade II*.

• Plas Glyn-y-Mel is a country house (subsequently a hotel) built in 1797–1799 for Richard Fenton, a Pembrokeshire historian and poet. The house stands at the south end of Glyn-y-Mel Road in Lower Town.[20]
• Herman Baptist Church is the earliest known Welsh example of a wide arch breaking into an open pediment - a feature that came to dominate non-conformist chapel facades across Wales by the mid-19th century. This facade also features four Doric pillars over a central porch. The chapel was built in 1832, designed by either Daniel Evans or his father David Evans of Fishguard.[21] The interior is also substantially from 1832, with three-sided gallery, wooden pillars and box-pews. The Chapel stands on the south side of High Street[22]

There are also 161 grade II listed buildings across the two towns, including shops, houses, Churches, inns and public buildings. The largest density of these is in Fishguard town centre, which has 112, particularly along the Market Square and Main Street, Hill Terrace, Tower Hill and Hamilton Street, with another heavy cluster along High Street and West Street. It includes several terraces on Park Street and Nottipass Street. The Lime kilns on The Slade and farm buildings at Maesgwynne are also listed. In Fishguard Lower Town there are a further 35 grade II buildings, mostly harbour-side cottages, clustered around Quay Street, Bridge Street, Newport Road and Glyn-y-mel Road. In Goodwick there are 14 listed buildings, particularly in the centre, including the Lifeboat memorial, Institute, two churches and several houses and cottages.[23]

This community has 3 of Pembrokeshire's 24 Conservation areas. These afford a wide-area protection for the special character of an area, regulating the building construction and alterations within the protected area and influencing the landscaping of outdoor spaces.[24] The three areas match closely to the three historic settlement cores, and to the clusterings of the listed buildings. All three conservation areas were first drawn up in 1976, had a revision in 1992 and an appraisal in 2016.

Lower Town Fishguard Conservation Area: Lower Town is thought to be oldest of the three settlements, growing up around the old harbour. The 2016 conservation area appraisal affirms the maritime history and coastal landscape as key significant features, and the resulting narrow streets, quayside buildings, constrained building plots and separation from the rest of Fishguard give it the picturesque value that the conservation area management plan seeks to protect and enhance. The conservation area is 19.23 hectares (47.5 acres) and covers the quay and hillside to the north, along the Gwaun valley, and adjoins the Fishguard Conservation Area where the main road climbs up from lower to upper town[25]

Fishguard Conservation Area (upper town): The special characteristics identified in the 2016 appraisal included the dramatic coastal setting, the mix of buildings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the marketplace with radial streets, historic shop fronts, narrow streets and alleyways and the extreme topography separating the upper and lower towns. The town had a medieval origin and Norman castle, but its prosperity increased as fishing and coastal trade increased through the 17th and 18th centuries. The sheltered harbour served both trading vessels and those travelling to Ireland, and allowed ancillary industries such as boatbuilding and rope-making to thrive, and the townscape retains many elements from that period of prosperity. 18.35 hectares (45.3 acres) of the historic core of the town and the former industrial area of The Slade, leading down to the shoreline, are included in the conservation area.[26]

Goodwick Conservation Area: Goodwick as a settlement saw its period of growth into a town later than Fishguard. Although a maritime history and coastal setting are noted as significant in defining its special character, it is the period of late 19th- and early-20th-century growth that defines the town's character. With the 1906 arrival of the railway, and the use of Goodwick Harbour for trans-Atlantic liners, Goodwick had a fashionable heyday in the Edwardian period, and the Victorian and Edwardian shops are identified as being key parts of Goodwick's character. The Conservation Area covers 29.53 hectares (73.0 acres) including the town centre and the residential streets on the hillside northwest of the railway and ferry terminal.[27]