Wild Wales - from inside a bubble
Autumn family outings: in Pembrokeshire, Jeremy Seal finds that a new holiday village is rather too neatly packaged for his taste - though his daughters love it. Daily Telegraph, 4/10/2008
I was strolling through rural South Pembrokeshire when a convoy of under-size Landrovers, with drivers to match, emerged from a gap in the hedge to overhaul me just as I was picking my way round a very large puddle. Two of the drivers, deliberately gunning engines as they passed, seemed particularly delighted by the filth-splattered state of the man they left in their wake.
‘Bye, Dad,’ chorused Anna (10) and Lizzie (7) as they disappeared down the rain-sodden track.
No question, then, that my daughters at least were enjoying their off-road mini-safari (45 minutes, £15 per child), just one of the activities available at southwest Wales’ newly opened Bluestone holiday village. That said, a first go on motorised wheels, with an involuntary mud bath for Father thrown in for good measure, surely meant fun by any estimation. How had the rest of our time at this 500-acre ‘new generation short-break destination’ straddling the borders of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park near Tenby measured up?
We have been bringing our children to Pembrokeshire – Cornwall without the overblown gastro scene, as rich in wildlife as it is bereft of crowds - since they were babies. Just not to anywhere like Bluestone, with its multiple accommodation lodges and ‘traditional Welsh village’ providing ‘leisure, retail, catering and other support services’. The girls’ previous experience of the county had tended to revolve around stays in thatched cottages or remote converted barns, exploring its coastal paths and islands, its ruined castles and magnificent surf beaches; a holiday prescription their parents considered ‘good’ for the children and their developing imaginations, even when the weather threatened pneumonia. When the girls discovered their father was now proposing to take them to the same corner of Wales to sample Bluestone’s on-tap leisure attractions, it was clear, from the jig they did round the kitchen, that they could not believe their luck.
If Bluestone, founded by the same local farming family which developed the adjacent Oakwood fun park twenty years ago, is about one thing, it’s ensuring its guests, especially the children, are knee-deep in stuff to do. The main draw is the centrepiece Blue Lagoon; we would get to know this coracle-shaped, eco-powered water park very well indeed. There’s also a lavish sports hall, woodland nature and biking trails, archery and croquet sessions, photography and bushcraft courses, and a toddler play area equipped with a fleet of mini-tractors, not to mention the Oakwood thrill rides a short walk away. All this and the on-site restaurants, bars and shops explains why Bluestone has been compared with Centerparcs, though not always favourably. The development was embarrassingly behind schedule when it opened in July, with visible works still continuing through August and the much-touted Well holistic spa not completed until September.
My own reservations – call them sophisticated or stick-in-the-mud – were more to do with the concept than any contractor tardiness. The Pembrokeshire I loved was about traditional, individual, small-scale authenticity – Matt’s ice cream van converted from a retired Haverfordwest ambulance to serve the walkers and surfers trade at Abereiddy, the period-piece Bessie’s pub in the Gwaun Valley - something that Bluestone by its packaged approach looked set to reversion, even to the point of parody.
Our first inkling of the sheer size of the development, named after the local granite-like dolerite famously used at distant Stonehenge, certainly did not put the girls off.
‘It’s even got its own roundabout,’ Anna marvelled as we drew up at the arrivals’ gate. We were directed to the supermarket-style guests’ car park, pleased to see that it was located at a discreet distance from the actual resort.
The first glimpse of Bluestone, nestling in a wooded bowl, with views over the Preseli Hills, proved impressive. We looked out over a harmonious patchwork of cedar shingle roofs – 182 lodges have already been built, with almost as many again slated for the next phase – which reminded me of the Transylvanian uplands. Haystacks and horse-drawn gypsy carts would have completed the view. But it was a golf buggy which shuttled us to our accommodation. No surprise, then, that the lodges should have lost their rustic appeal in the course of the transfer. Close-up, they suffered from a kit-like uniformity, their log exteriors coated in wood preservative shades of rust, chocolate or faded khaki.
Inside, the eco-aware lodges were certainly spacious and comfortably fitted out, with high-spec kitchens and TV/DVD systems and appealing split-level accommodation below pitched ceilings, though all this and the framed wall prints of local beauty spots added up to a style more plantation house than cabin. Nor would it be long before we began to notice what the lodge lacked, mostly a washing machine and drying space for dealing with all the dirt and water Bluestone/Pembrokeshire promised to throw at us. We could also have done with such cosy cabin essentials as a wood-burning stove and/or fireplace. William McNamara, Bluestone’s founder, cited health and safety regulations when I quizzed him on the lack of open fires. That same consideration perhaps explained the absence of barbecuing facilities. Indeed, our lodge seemed generally ill-prepared for al fresco living, with French windows giving with no great enthusiasm onto a single pub-style bench, as if the very building despaired of the sun ever reappearing.
The lodge, in that regard, was proved right. The weather stayed so bad that my determined plans to remind the girls of Pembrokeshire’s unpackaged glories – the dune-backed mega-beach at Barafundle, the dizzying bird colonies on Skomer Island, the woodland walks down the Gwaun Valley – were rained off. Instead, we were left with no choice but to while away the rain-swept hours, on several occasions, at the Blue Lagoon, with its pools, flumes and wave machine. It was half-way down the Wild Water ride, in an elevated outdoor relaxation pool with views over Oakwood’s thrill rides, that I got to talking to a visiting parent. ‘I’ll admit I hadn’t planned that we would spend most of our Pembrokeshire holiday in a swimming bubble,’ said Oliver. ‘But it’s proved a life-saver over the last few days.’ As for my daughters, they were clearly having the time of their lives. A delighted Lizzie appeared from a swirl of white water, stopping to sniff the air approvingly.
‘You can even smell the chips from Oakwood,’ she exclaimed.
At Bluestone’s ‘village’, with its new-built terraced cottages, its village green and stream, its bars, gift shops and bakery, we enjoyed pizzas at the Granary and ransacked the commendable children’s menu – fancy fish and chips, a popular ravioli - at the upmarket Carreg Las. A weird construct, perhaps, but it was good to see the village store showcasing a creditable range of Welsh products including wines (Monmouth), beers (Carmarthen), pickles (Tywyn) and jams (Pembrokeshire). It was also noticeable that a range of off-site activities – coasteering, pony trekking, fly fishing, surfing lessons, whale and dolphin watching trips - were being promoted at the information centre. ‘We wouldn’t discourage people from enjoying Pembrokeshire at large,’ William McNamara told me. ‘We’re simply trying to complement what the area has to offer.’
We signed up, when the sun finally did come out, for a bushcraft session in Bluestone’s Minwear Woods. The girls learned how to make fire from sticks; cool enough, they admitted, though I could tell they felt the time would have been better spent improving their Landrover-handling skills. Later that afternoon, when I told them that we were going to the beach, they looked decidedly put out. We drove west to Newgale, one of the region’s great surf beaches, for a spell of body-boarding.
‘That’s got to be better than any mechanical wave!’ I declared as the Atlantic swell swooshed our boards up the sand. About that, however, the girls were unconvinced. Which was why that day ended with a late session at the Blue Lagoon.
ENDS
Jeremy Seal and his daughters were guests at Bluestone (01834 862400, www.bluestonewales.com) where a four-night midweek stay in a lodge sleeping four in October costs from £399. Access to the Blue Lagoon is complementary. Most other activities cost extra.
‘Bye, Dad,’ chorused Anna (10) and Lizzie (7) as they disappeared down the rain-sodden track.
No question, then, that my daughters at least were enjoying their off-road mini-safari (45 minutes, £15 per child), just one of the activities available at southwest Wales’ newly opened Bluestone holiday village. That said, a first go on motorised wheels, with an involuntary mud bath for Father thrown in for good measure, surely meant fun by any estimation. How had the rest of our time at this 500-acre ‘new generation short-break destination’ straddling the borders of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park near Tenby measured up?
We have been bringing our children to Pembrokeshire – Cornwall without the overblown gastro scene, as rich in wildlife as it is bereft of crowds - since they were babies. Just not to anywhere like Bluestone, with its multiple accommodation lodges and ‘traditional Welsh village’ providing ‘leisure, retail, catering and other support services’. The girls’ previous experience of the county had tended to revolve around stays in thatched cottages or remote converted barns, exploring its coastal paths and islands, its ruined castles and magnificent surf beaches; a holiday prescription their parents considered ‘good’ for the children and their developing imaginations, even when the weather threatened pneumonia. When the girls discovered their father was now proposing to take them to the same corner of Wales to sample Bluestone’s on-tap leisure attractions, it was clear, from the jig they did round the kitchen, that they could not believe their luck.
If Bluestone, founded by the same local farming family which developed the adjacent Oakwood fun park twenty years ago, is about one thing, it’s ensuring its guests, especially the children, are knee-deep in stuff to do. The main draw is the centrepiece Blue Lagoon; we would get to know this coracle-shaped, eco-powered water park very well indeed. There’s also a lavish sports hall, woodland nature and biking trails, archery and croquet sessions, photography and bushcraft courses, and a toddler play area equipped with a fleet of mini-tractors, not to mention the Oakwood thrill rides a short walk away. All this and the on-site restaurants, bars and shops explains why Bluestone has been compared with Centerparcs, though not always favourably. The development was embarrassingly behind schedule when it opened in July, with visible works still continuing through August and the much-touted Well holistic spa not completed until September.
My own reservations – call them sophisticated or stick-in-the-mud – were more to do with the concept than any contractor tardiness. The Pembrokeshire I loved was about traditional, individual, small-scale authenticity – Matt’s ice cream van converted from a retired Haverfordwest ambulance to serve the walkers and surfers trade at Abereiddy, the period-piece Bessie’s pub in the Gwaun Valley - something that Bluestone by its packaged approach looked set to reversion, even to the point of parody.
Our first inkling of the sheer size of the development, named after the local granite-like dolerite famously used at distant Stonehenge, certainly did not put the girls off.
‘It’s even got its own roundabout,’ Anna marvelled as we drew up at the arrivals’ gate. We were directed to the supermarket-style guests’ car park, pleased to see that it was located at a discreet distance from the actual resort.
The first glimpse of Bluestone, nestling in a wooded bowl, with views over the Preseli Hills, proved impressive. We looked out over a harmonious patchwork of cedar shingle roofs – 182 lodges have already been built, with almost as many again slated for the next phase – which reminded me of the Transylvanian uplands. Haystacks and horse-drawn gypsy carts would have completed the view. But it was a golf buggy which shuttled us to our accommodation. No surprise, then, that the lodges should have lost their rustic appeal in the course of the transfer. Close-up, they suffered from a kit-like uniformity, their log exteriors coated in wood preservative shades of rust, chocolate or faded khaki.
Inside, the eco-aware lodges were certainly spacious and comfortably fitted out, with high-spec kitchens and TV/DVD systems and appealing split-level accommodation below pitched ceilings, though all this and the framed wall prints of local beauty spots added up to a style more plantation house than cabin. Nor would it be long before we began to notice what the lodge lacked, mostly a washing machine and drying space for dealing with all the dirt and water Bluestone/Pembrokeshire promised to throw at us. We could also have done with such cosy cabin essentials as a wood-burning stove and/or fireplace. William McNamara, Bluestone’s founder, cited health and safety regulations when I quizzed him on the lack of open fires. That same consideration perhaps explained the absence of barbecuing facilities. Indeed, our lodge seemed generally ill-prepared for al fresco living, with French windows giving with no great enthusiasm onto a single pub-style bench, as if the very building despaired of the sun ever reappearing.
The lodge, in that regard, was proved right. The weather stayed so bad that my determined plans to remind the girls of Pembrokeshire’s unpackaged glories – the dune-backed mega-beach at Barafundle, the dizzying bird colonies on Skomer Island, the woodland walks down the Gwaun Valley – were rained off. Instead, we were left with no choice but to while away the rain-swept hours, on several occasions, at the Blue Lagoon, with its pools, flumes and wave machine. It was half-way down the Wild Water ride, in an elevated outdoor relaxation pool with views over Oakwood’s thrill rides, that I got to talking to a visiting parent. ‘I’ll admit I hadn’t planned that we would spend most of our Pembrokeshire holiday in a swimming bubble,’ said Oliver. ‘But it’s proved a life-saver over the last few days.’ As for my daughters, they were clearly having the time of their lives. A delighted Lizzie appeared from a swirl of white water, stopping to sniff the air approvingly.
‘You can even smell the chips from Oakwood,’ she exclaimed.
At Bluestone’s ‘village’, with its new-built terraced cottages, its village green and stream, its bars, gift shops and bakery, we enjoyed pizzas at the Granary and ransacked the commendable children’s menu – fancy fish and chips, a popular ravioli - at the upmarket Carreg Las. A weird construct, perhaps, but it was good to see the village store showcasing a creditable range of Welsh products including wines (Monmouth), beers (Carmarthen), pickles (Tywyn) and jams (Pembrokeshire). It was also noticeable that a range of off-site activities – coasteering, pony trekking, fly fishing, surfing lessons, whale and dolphin watching trips - were being promoted at the information centre. ‘We wouldn’t discourage people from enjoying Pembrokeshire at large,’ William McNamara told me. ‘We’re simply trying to complement what the area has to offer.’
We signed up, when the sun finally did come out, for a bushcraft session in Bluestone’s Minwear Woods. The girls learned how to make fire from sticks; cool enough, they admitted, though I could tell they felt the time would have been better spent improving their Landrover-handling skills. Later that afternoon, when I told them that we were going to the beach, they looked decidedly put out. We drove west to Newgale, one of the region’s great surf beaches, for a spell of body-boarding.
‘That’s got to be better than any mechanical wave!’ I declared as the Atlantic swell swooshed our boards up the sand. About that, however, the girls were unconvinced. Which was why that day ended with a late session at the Blue Lagoon.
ENDS
Jeremy Seal and his daughters were guests at Bluestone (01834 862400, www.bluestonewales.com) where a four-night midweek stay in a lodge sleeping four in October costs from £399. Access to the Blue Lagoon is complementary. Most other activities cost extra.
