Bring the past to life and reimagine the present with a range of perspectives as diverse as the connections between Ireland and Wales across the Irish Sea. Developed by Mary-Ann Constantine and Cathrine Agnew of the Ports, Past and Present Project…

Medievalist Daryl Hendley Rooney from Trinity College Dublin talks about the famous churchman, scholar and historian Gerald of Wales (c.1146–1223) and his upbringing at Manorbier Castle in Pembrokeshire. He discusses Gerald's mixed Norman and Welsh…

If you’ve ever noticed sheets of what appears to be a translucent brown plastic film covering the rocks and the sand where the surf rolls in, you’ve seen the seaweed known in Wales as laver (or sloke in Ireland). If you’ve ever enjoyed sushi you…

Poised between the windswept coast and the stony volcanic spine of the land above Fishguard and Goodwick, the Pencaer peninsula’s acid soil has never borne rich harvests. Pembrokeshire’s early potato crop has become famous but once upon a time root…

Whitesands Bay (Porthmawr in Welsh) with its long sandy beach, rolling waves and stunning views, is a world-famous surfing destination, as well as a popular holiday beach. Two miles west of St David’s, it has a long history as a place of arrival and…

During the 1790s Richard Fenton was busy touring his native Pembrokeshire and gathering material for his Historical Tour of Pembrokeshire, published in 1811 to highly positive reviews. This enormous work, beginning and ending in Fishguard, contains…

Richard Fenton (1747-1821), travel writer, poet, lawyer and antiquarian, was a significant Welsh cultural figure who lived in Fishguard from 1793. One of his most influential publications was an edition of the writings of the Tudor historian George…

The first member of the Fenton family to arrive in Fishguard - in the late 18th century - was Lieutenant Samuel Fenton, a naval officer who transformed the fortunes of a fishing village so dependent on the local catch that its inhabitants were known…

The St Patrick was the only ferry still sailing between Ireland and Wales during World War Two. The others, the St David and the St Andrew, had been requisitioned as hospital ships serving the European front. The St. Patrick made a regular daily…

The first scheduled steam packet service between West Wales and Ireland can be traced to back the year 1824. It was in that year that the Post Office replaced its sailing packets on the Milford Haven to Waterford run with steamships. The…