Caldey Island – Mad Monks and Overfalls by Ian Bibby
Following Saturday night’s trip planning discussion, we decided to travel to Tenby and circumnavigate Caldey Island in an anti-clockwise direction.
Heading off from the accommodation, we met at the Tenby, South Beach car park. (Note to self to use that one in the future).
After getting ready, we assembled ourselves into three smaller groups for the trip. In our group were Keith, James, Jill, Trevor, Martin P and I. After watching the other two groups launch and head off towards Caldey Island, we opted to head up South Beach to St Catherine’s Island and paddle through the cave and round the island, while we still had water.
We then started the crossing to Caldey Island.
On approaching the island, we were met by Frankie A, who had paddled out to warn us not to land on the beach, as they had already been ‘coached’ by the island land manager, who told them that they owned the land, down to the low water mark. Deciding not to have an additional ‘coaching’ session or the wrath of a Cistercian Monk, we opted not to land………..there!
Troubled Waters? Rights of access to the foreshore.
The legal status of beaches in this country is more complicated than you might think
1) What is the foreshore? The foreshore is the area between the high and low water mark on the seashore.
3) Surely, anybody has the right to access beaches?
This is true in many common law jurisdictions, including both Scotland and New Zealand (in both cases, a common law right was later confirmed by statute) as well as parts of the United States.
However, this is not the case in England and Wales, where it is not clear that there is a common law right to access the foreshore for recreational purposes.
There is, however, a clear right to access the foreshore for fishing purposes, as there is a “public right of navigation and of fishing in the sea and rights ancillary to it”. Fishermen, therefore, have much broader rights to the foreshore than swimmers and sandcastle builders.
Source Troubled Waters? Rights of access to the foreshore – Brecher
However, the island’s own website talks about “Priory Beach” as the only beach with public access. It seems strange that you can swim, access the beach and walk about freely as a member of the public, provided that you come to the island by the ferry. They do talk about the inherited right given to the monks of the island by royal charter to the foreshore, but then talk about “public Access to the beach”. I think I would be happy to land again, as part of my journey around the island, as I would require shelter or a rest from the sea, or indeed, I may take my fishing line, and enjoy the rights afforded by the rights of fisher people to use the foreshore and sea to fish.
We started to paddle on around the island, the East and South shores having very interesting rock formations and plenty of opportunities for rock hopping through the numerous gullies.
Apologies- Typo on my part. 4 groups!