Celtic Ocean Home :  Places, Towns & Cities : St. Davids

St. Davids, County of Pembrokeshire

The smallest cathedral city in Britain is named after the patron saint of Wales, who established a monastery here in 589 AD.

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Saturday 4th – Sunday 5th September

The Really Wild Food Festival

A celebration of food and countryside crafts originating from the wild, it champions rural life, and how we can make the most of it!

Offering the chance to get back in touch with the countryside; eat it, cook it, learn about it, even play with it! Promoting and showcasing locally grown or produced food or wild ingredients foraged from the hedgerows, coast, beach and river.

It’s the wildest two days of culinary delights, rural traditions, storytelling and countryside fun you could want, and regular favourites and exciting new exhibitors have been booking in for this year’s weekend of antics and madness!

Racing Ferrets return for the third year as does the increasingly competitive Wellie Wanging which will torment and entertain.

The Scarecrow Competition will show how inventive people can be with Wild Materials.

The Pembrokeshire Weavers and Dyers Group will be working flat out all weekend turning a fleece into a beautiful Shawl which will be won by a lucky person on Sunday.

For the energetic there is the 5 mile Really Wild Run which attracted a great entry last year or foraging walks for the more leisurely. For those who want to relax completely there will be music to listen to, talks to listen to and plenty of food and drink to enjoy!

Four terrific chefs have been signed up for the cookery demos on Saturday and Sunday.

Scott Davies who now runs his own catering company called Strawberry Shortcake Dining travelled around India with Gary Rhodes and was head chef at Llys Meddyg in Newport, where he achieved 2 AA rosettes.
Fraser Christian, who hosted Catch and Cook courses for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and contributed to the fish events at River Cottage HQ are both demonstrating their skills on Saturday.
On Sunday, Anthony Evans who is a well known chef with his own TV cookery series, ‘Stwffio’, on S4C will entertain visitors.
Andrew Holcroft who is a chef at Cwtch* restaurant in St. Davids. He was the popular runner-up in the Pembrokeshire Tourism Awards Chef Category in 2009 and second in the St. Davids' Cawl Competition earlier this year.

This friendly festival has something for everyone.

The second Really Wild Festival Verge will take place in the week prior to the festival with art and craft and food events for adults and children. On Thursday 2nd there will be classes and talks for would-be writers and poets at Oriel-y-Parc Gallery and a wild medicine walk, for all ages.

More details of the Really Wild Festival and the Verge events will be available on the Festival website as they are confirmed, so don’t miss them! www.reallywildfestival.co.uk

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About St. David's

Near to the City of St. David’s is beautiful Whitesands Bay; good for surfing. Local boats make trips to Ramsay island where dolphins and seals can be seen.

The centre, just a few hundred yards from the cathedral, has a variety of shops from clothing to crafts and a selection of cafes, restaurants, pubs, hotels and guesthouses.

It was considered that two pilgrimages to St. David’s Cathedral should equal one to Rome. Many British kings and queens have made pilgrimages to this cathedral, including William the Conqueror and our present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

St. David travelled throughout South Wales, Devon, Cornwall and Brittany spreading the word of Christianity; there are a number of churches in these areas that take his name. Interestingly, St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was Welsh; born at Banwen and educated at Llantwit Major (Llanilltud Fawr) in the Vale of Glamorgan (see 'Places, Towns & Cities'). He was also a cousin to St. David, so it must have been ‘kept in the family’!

(See also the reference to St. David and St. Patrick at Llantwit Major. With reference to the travels of St. David and the date, relative to his death, see also, the article about ‘Arthur’ in 'Aspects of Wales').

The connection with Brittany is strong; Both Breton and Welsh tradition suggests that St David studied under St. Pol (as in St. Pol de Leon) at Whitland in Carmarthenshire. Some three miles from St. Pol de Leon is the village of Dirinon, burial place of Non, St. David’s mother.

Visitors wishing to attend services can visit the cathedral website: http://www.stdavidscathedral.org.uk

Directions

Nearest towns: Haverfordwest 16 miles, Fishguard 16.