Milford Haven Waterway (Welsh: Dyfrffordd Aberdaugleddau) is a natural harbour in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is a ria or drowned valley which was flooded at the end of the last ice age. The Daugleddau estuary winds west to the sea. As one of the deepest natural harbours in the world, it is a busy shipping channel, trafficked by ferries from Pembroke Dock to Ireland, oil tankers and pleasure craft.
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Thorne Island is a rocky islet and part of the community of Angle, Pembrokeshire, Wales, with an area of 2 acres, dominated by a coastal artillery fort built to defend the Milford Haven Waterway in the mid-19th century. It has been the site of a number of shipwrecks, including one in 1894 that was carrying a cargo of Scotch whisky.
1.5 km
Stack Rock Fort is a fort built on a small island in the Milford Haven Waterway, Pembrokeshire, Wales. A 3-gun fort was built between 1850 and 1852, and then upgraded from 1859 to 1871 with a new building that completely encased the original gun tower. It is now a Grade II* listed building and a scheduled monument.
1.5 km
Chapel Bay Fort is located on the southern shore of the Milford Haven Waterway, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The fort is approximately 1 mile from the village of Angle. One of a series of forts built as part of the inner line of defence of the Haven following the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, it is a Grade II Listed Building. and is also known as "Chapel Bay Battery".
Construction began in 1890 and was completed in 1891 at a cost of £11,779. The battery was the first fortification in the area to be built of mass concrete. It could accommodate 91 men and had mess room and sick bay facilities. Its initial armament was three ten inch rifled muzzle-loading guns.
From June 1900 until August 1901, the battery was reconstructed to take more modern armament - three 6-inch breech-loading guns. Throughout the First World War, the fort remained in military hands, but it was decommissioned in 1920. It was sold to the Angle Estate in 1932. The battery was used during the Second World War when a mining observation post was built on the site. In recent years the fort was acquired privately and now functions as a museum, following a £500,000 grant from the Welsh Assembly. One of the fort's original 10-inch guns has been re-mounted as part of the restoration. The site opened to the public in April 2015.
2.1 km
The East and West Blockhouses were Device Forts built by King Henry VIII in 1539 to protect the harbour of Milford Haven in Wales. The two blockhouses were positioned on either side of the Milford Haven Waterway in the villages of Angle and Dale respectively, overlooking the sea. The East Blockhouse was never completed, but the remains were reused as a defensive site in the Second World War. The West Blockhouse was described by contemporaries as forming a round tower with gunports, but it was demolished when West Blockhouse Fort was built on the same site in the 19th century.
2.2 km
South Hook Fort, on the northern shore of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, is a Grade II* listed building which belongs to a series of forts built as part of the inner line of defence of the Haven following the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom.
Admiral Horatio Nelson, visiting the haven with the Hamiltons, described it as the next best natural harbour to Trincomalee in Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka) and "the finest port in Christendom". Much of the coastline of the Waterway is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, listed as Milford Haven Waterway SSSI.