The Old Castle Terrace Pembrokeshire SA68 0PP Lawrenny

The home of The Big Retreat Wales is on the Old Castle Terrace in Lawrenny, high above the Cleddau Estuary.

There are so many legends, some little known, tied to this secret waterway and the communities that sit along its winding upper reaches.

Our festival site overlooks a magnificent stretch of the river. It’s not hard to imagine the constant tide of historic figures that have bobbed past here, from Neolithic hunters on animal hide canoes, to Romans, Vikings, Normans, even future kings maybe. It’s unusual to be able to pinpoint with such absolute certainty, the exact path humanity has followed for millennia.

Sitting on the Old Castle Terrace, a brew in hand, is a pretty special place from which to contemplate your place in the great Order of Things. Sometimes I look at the cows grazing just below the terrace walls and I’m pretty sure they’re doing the same thing - definitely ruminating.