St Non’s Sound Walk takes listeners on a journey to the ‘centre of the Celtic world’

A new podcast is giving people from all over the world the chance to follow in the footsteps of ancient pilgrims and experience the stories, secrets and sounds of St Non’s Chapel and Holy Well, the reported birthplace of Wales’ patron saint.

The St Non’s Sound Walk, created by acclaimed Welsh writer and broadcaster Horatio Clare, takes listeners on a journey by boat and on foot, revealing an inspirational landscape wedged between the sea and Britain’s smallest city, St Davids.

Released on St Non’s Day, this audio tour-de-force is built around the voices of artists, farmers, historians, musicians, seafarers and writers who speak about their relationships to St Non’s, the sea, the landscape, the history, the myths, the creativity and spirituality of the place.

Horatio Clare said: “Making this Sound Walk around St Non’s and St Davids, one of the most beautiful places on earth, was a bewitching and beautiful experience, full of surprise, richness, and the depths and tints of histories and cultures which stretch back thousands of years, and which are vibrantly alive today.

“As a native of South Wales who has known and loved Pembrokeshire all my life, it was a particular privilege to discover and solicit the stories, lives and histories of this place.”

Horatio is joined by writer/broadcaster Laura Barton, who brings a writer’s eye and a traveller’s curiosity to the sound walk as they stroll along the Coast Path to visit St Non’s on a sunny summer’s morning.

There are contributions from female sea captain Ffion Rees, Welsh writers Jon Gower and Brenig Davies, singers Mike Chant, Roy Jones, Lis Cousens and Rudi Lloyd Benson, artists Jackie Morris and Becky Lloyd, farmers Elspeth Cotton and Robert Davies, scholar Dean Sarah Rowland Jones, marine archaeologist Julian Whitewright and seafarer Graham da Gama Howells.

National Park Authority Interpretation Officer, Rhowan Alleyne, added: “Inspired by journeys of the past, the St Non’s Sound Walk is a rich and meditative experience that will carry listeners to the curving cliffs of Pembrokeshire from wherever they are in the world.”

Recorded in August 2021 and available to download for free from the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority website, the sound walk was funded by Ancient Connections, a project that is reviving the ancient links between North Wexford in Ireland and North Pembrokeshire, as well as Ireland and Wales, in order to create sustainable tourism in and between these regions. 

Ancient Connections is funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Co-operation programme. The project partners are Pembrokeshire County Council, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, Wexford County Council and Visit Wexford.

For more information about Ancient Connections please visit: www.ancientconnections.org

To download the St Non’s Sound walk visit www.pembrokeshirecoast.wales/st-nons-sound-walk.