Newport (Trefdraeth in Welsh, "town by the beach") is a small town on the north Pembrokeshire coast, at the mouth of the river Nevern. Not to be confused with the city of Newport near Cardiff, it is one of the most likeable bases in the national park: big enough to have shops, pubs and good places to eat, small enough to walk around in an hour, and with both the sea and the hills on the doorstep.
The Norman lord William FitzMartin founded the town in about 1197 and built a castle on the slope above it. The castle was rebuilt as a house in the nineteenth century and is not open, but its towers still stand over the streets. Newport keeps some old borough habits: it still elects a mayor, who beats the bounds on horseback every August.
The town looks two ways. Down by the estuary is the Parrog, the old port, and across the river the dunes and sand of Newport Sands. Behind the town rises Carningli, a rocky hill on the edge of the Preseli Hills with an Iron Age fort on top. The climb takes an hour or two and the view along the coast is one of the best in Wales. In a back street in town is Carreg Coetan Arthur, a Neolithic burial chamber surrounded by bungalows.
Newport is on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path between Fishguard and Cardigan, and the Fishguard–Cardigan bus stops here. Pentre Ifan, the finest prehistoric monument in the area, is a few miles south-east.