The most south-westerly county in Wales, UK. Home to Britain's only costal National Park, the Pembrokeshire coast National Park. Adjacent counties are to the east Carmarthenshire, and to the north Cardiganshire.

Principal towns include Pembroke, Milford Haven, the county town of Haverfordwest, Fishguard, the seaside resort of Tenby and Britain's smallest city St. Davids.

Known in Welsh as Sir Benfro.

A coastal county, in south-west Wales surrounded by the sea on all sides except to the north-east where it is bounded by Cardiganshire and in the east where it is bounded by Carmarthenshire.

One of the historic counties of Wales, established by the Acts of Union 1536-1543. Once the heartlands of the medieval kingdom of Dyfed, it was renamed as such in the local government re-organisation of 1974 but changed back again to 'Pembrokeshire' in the subsequent re-organisation of 1996.

The coast was subject to Scandinavian (i.e Viking) raids and settlement during the tenth century based on the evidence of the heavy concentration of Scandinavian place names in the area. The southern half of the county was one of the first areas of Wales to be occupied by the Normans at the end of the eleventh century. (A castle was built at Pembroke in 1096 and another at Newport in 1100.) The Normans introduced Flemish settlers in the twelfth century, which led to the south of the county becoming one of the most anglicized areas of Wales, to the extent that it is known as "Little England beyond Wales". (There were many objections for example, to the renaming of the county as Dyfed.)

Some basic facts

Area 395,151 acres or 617 square miles
Population around 112,000.
Highest point at Wadbury Hill (974 ft)

In the north are the Presely hills, a wide stretch of moorland littered with prehistoric monuments and the source of the stone used in the construction of Stonehenge. The south is basically flat where traditional mixed farming is practised, although the county is noted for its early potatoes and Pembrokeshire farmers once grew rich exporting milk to London. Almost the entire length of the coastline is included within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

The principal towns are Fishguard, Haverfordwest, Milford Haven, Narberth, Newport, Pembroke, Pembroke Dock, St. David's and Tenby.

The main industries are tourism and agriculture with a large oil terminal and associated refining operations based in Milford Haven being the only industrialised part of the county.


NOTES

Sir is the Welsh word for 'shire' or 'county'

Actually tourism and agriculture are the main industries of most of Wales with the exception of the south-east


SOURCES

Based on information taken from the National Gazetteer of Wales at www.gazetteer-wales.co.uk as well as information from GENUKI Administrative Areas of Wales at www.genuki.org.uk/big/Regions/Wales.html plus whatever else I could remember.

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