Remains of wartime radar station, near Strumble Head

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Above the Wales Coast Path here are the remains of a low-level wartime radar station – one of the best preserved in Britain. Now they are Scheduled Ancient Monuments.

In 1940 the military authorities established the Chain Home Low network of radar posts, to detect and identify aircraft which were flying below the level for detection by normal radar systems. Many radar stations were created on Britain’s west coast to scan the Irish Sea for incoming German planes.

The station here at Pant y Beudy, near Pwll Deri, could detect planes flying as low as 15 metres (50ft) above the sea. Like others in Pembrokeshire, the station was connected to RAF Hayscastle Cross, where signals were received using four masts, 100 metres (325ft) tall.

One of the buildings you can see at the site housed the equipment which transmitted signals to Hayscastle and received incoming signals. The radar station was closed in 1946.

There are other former military buildings from the Second World War on this headland, including one near Strumble Head lighthouse which was scheduled for demolition in the 1980s but reprieved because birdwatchers were using it as a hide.

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