St. Catherine's Island and Fort

The walk out to St. Catherine's Island from Tenby is half the appeal. You head down towards the harbour, pick your way across the beach, and then it's a proper scramble over rocks to reach the island itself - doable at low tide, but time it wrong and you're getting wet feet. Once you're there, the Victorian fort dominates the landscape. It's a squat, sturdy bit of 19th-century engineering, built to protect the Welsh coast from French invasion that never quite came. The views back towards Tenby's pastel-coloured seafront are genuinely good, especially on a clear day when you can see right along the coast.

This isn't a "go inside and spend hours" sort of place. The fort is unmanned, so you're exploring the exterior - walking round the gun emplacements, peering through the gun ports, getting a sense of what life must have been like for the soldiers stationed here. Kids quite like clambering about on it, and the adventure of the tidal scramble adds to the excitement. Give yourself two to three hours maximum, including the walk from town and the time to get stuck in on the island.

Pembrokeshire's packed with good coastal walks, and St. Catherine's slots in nicely as a half-day venture from any of the nearby parks - Saltern Holiday Park is barely a mile away. Go at low tide, wear proper shoes, and check the tide times before you set off. Miss the window and you're stuck waiting or getting cold and damp.