The Best Time of Year to Visit Waterwynch

Tenby Harbour at springtime

Waterwynch changes with the seasons more than people expect. The house faces south across the bay, and even in January the light on the water has something to it. But if there is a season that feels particularly special here, it is spring.

March, April and May are, in many ways, Pembrokeshire at its best. The Tenby daffodil, one of Britain’s native daffodils and long associated with this part of Pembrokeshire, is among the first signs that the season has turned. The days are lengthening. The coast path fills with wildflowers and gorse. You can walk from the house and barely see another person.

The sea is cold, but it is always cold. That has never stopped anyone.

Cherry Tree Avenue at Waterwynch

What spring gives you is the coast without the crowds, and rather better weather than most people expect. April and May are statistically the driest months of the year in Pembrokeshire, with fewer rainy days than the height of summer and far fewer than autumn or winter. It is never the driest coast in Britain, but for those who want the coast path, the gardens and a quieter Tenby, the spring numbers make a quietly compelling case. Which? recently named Tenby the best value beach town in the UK, scoring full marks for its beaches and seafront, and noted that many of the visitors surveyed choose to come out of season. That is local knowledge worth having. The gardens at Waterwynch come properly alive, cherry blossom and daffodils giving way to late spring colour. Restaurants have tables. Tenby slows back into itself. The grounds feel especially private before the rest of the season arrives.

Tenby’s colourful houses

A short drive from Waterwynch brings you to Martin’s Haven, where boats run to Skomer Island from April onwards. In early May, puffins gather there among the bluebells and sea cliffs. It is one of those spring spectacles that stays with you.

Skomer Island Puffin

Christmas and New Year at Waterwynch is something else entirely. There is a particular kind of magic in gathering a large group in a house like this when it is dark by four and the bay is wild and the bar is open and no one needs to be anywhere. Large groups can properly settle in over the festive break, without anyone feeling short of space. The billiard room and cinema room earn their keep. The kitchen becomes the centre of the day. The Sky Room on a winter evening, with the lights across the water, is hard to leave.

New Year fireworks viewed from Waterwynch

Summer, of course, has its own case: the beach below the house, long evenings on the terrace, doors left open to the sound of the sea. There is a reason August books up first.

But if your dates are flexible, look at spring before you look anywhere else. And if you want the house for Christmas or New Year, move quickly.

And for those wondering about Pembrokeshire weather: some of the best days here happen when the rain arrives sideways across the bay.

See our journal on what to do on a rainy day at Waterwynch→

Find out more about Waterwynch House →