The Blue Lagoon at Abereiddy is a magical place for a swim. Surrounded by sheer cliff walls and sheltered from the often roaring waves beyond, it feels wild yet safe. Although the water is very deep, it’s generally calm, which is probably why it’s been voted one of the UK’s best wild swimming spots. The water colour is unbelievable, although it looks green rather than blue at eye level, it’s a truly gorgeous shade of green. When I sent videos of it to my family, nobody could believe it was in the UK!
The walk to get there is short and easy, or you could even kayak around from the beach, which we saw quite a few people do.
Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Pembrokeshire’s Blue Lagoon at Abereiddy.
The shortest walk to the Blue Lagoon, Abereiddy
The stats
Distance: 350m each way (0.2 miles)
Elevation gain: 10m (30 feet)
Difficulty: Easy
The shortest trail to the Blue Lagoon
From the Abereiddy Beach car park (details below) you head right, away from the road, and you’ll see a few stepping stones which take you onto the walking trail. The first 25m after this point are stairs leading you up to the cliff side walk.
The path then flattens and becomes an easy concrete walkway. The views over Abereiddy Beach are fantastic.
I actually preferred the beach from above as the sand is not the prettiest when you’re actually down on the beach itself.
You’ll continue along the flat path and then pass through a gate. You’ll notice a sign about the safest way to jump from the platforms at the lagoon - a popular pastime here.
The walk then continues past a small island and over to the lookout above the Blue Lagoon, which you’ll reach 250m after leaving the car park.
The view is great and from this vantage point the water does look blue, it’s from below that it looks that otherworldly shade of green.
To reach the lagoon you’ll head down the steep gravel path, which is about 100m long. It wasn’t slippery on our visit, but it was one of those paths that’s easier simply to run down.
To reach the water’s edge you’ll then walk down over some rocks, including one little scramble (of about two steps, so nothing to write home about) and then you’ll be at the pool.
We visited a few hours after low tide and at this time there was a lot of space to bask on the rocks beside the water and you could even walk through the little rock hole to the left.
Wild swimming at the Blue Lagoon
Although I love wild swimming, I very rarely swim at beaches, preferring waterfall pools and rivers. However, the Blue Lagoon is one of my favourite swim spots in the UK!
The pool is in an abandoned quarry and the giant rock walls give it an adventurous feel. The small channel leading into the quarry allows you to look out at the waves beyond whilst feeling perfectly sheltered inside the lagoon.
I could feel a very slight current on the left side of the pool by the opening, but nothing at all in the rest of it, which made for very easy swimming. I am sure on a really wild weather day when the sea is rough it would not be as calm in the lagoon, but due to its sheltered nature, it’s generally a leisurely place to swim.
In terms of entering the water, it’s very easy. You can just walk off the rocky ‘beach’ into the water. The start of the lagoon is shallow, so you have to walk over a few small rocks inside the water, but they weren’t slippery and it gets deep enough to swim off pretty quickly.
On that note it is really deep, which is perfect for confident swimmers, but may put some people off. In terms of temperature, it’s fairly cold, but the difference here versus some other wild swimming spots is that you can swim proper lengths, which warms you up almost instantly.
On our visit the far right of the pool had some seaweed, but the rest of it was completely weed free and a truly glorious place for long unobstructed laps.
The only thing that may spoil it for you is if it gets crowded - which it can do on sunny weekends and in the school holidays. If that’s when you’re visiting (we went in the summer holidays), then you’re better off coming early or late.
I was swimming around 5pm and there were still a reasonable amount of people around, including some kayakers, but by 6pm there were only two people in the water!
I imagine coming early would have the same effect.
Cliff jumping at the Blue Lagoon
I won’t go into too much detail here as I didn’t jump, but I do know that’s the thing a lot of people come here to do. There are three different levels you can jump from, but you can’t jump from all three all day due to tides.
We saw people jumping at two of the levels during our visit. We were told the jumps were from between 2m and 10m - but don’t quote us on that!
Read the sign for best technique and check with others if in doubt about depth etc.
Getting to the platform to jump, which is on the far side of the lagoon from the beach, requires swimming across and then scrambling up the wall. The scramble up looked easy enough from the water, but I didn’t try it so can’t be sure.
The Blue Lagoon from above and seal spotting
If you want to get that drone like perspective of the Blue Lagoon you’ll want to head a little higher up the cliffs. This one is a normal hiking path, no need to scramble up the cliff! Instead return to that upper lookout and head back along the main path towards the car park.
About 100m away from the lookout you’ll see numerous social trails start leading up the hill on the left. The easiest and most well maintained path is the zigzag track that runs uphill from the gate. This is the longer route, but less steep.
The steep path is 120m long and it’s the most direct route. If you don’t like the look of it you can walk back to the gate and then up from there, which is 260m from when you get to the gate. We went up the steep path and down the gentler one.
At the top you’ll get a great view of the lagoon and the headland beyond.
If you walk a couple of minutes over to the headland, along the flat grassy path, not only do you get wonderful views of the distant island, but also the chance to spot Grey seals. We saw one playing in the water below, which was another highlight of our visit.
You could continue walking along the cliff tops if you wanted to extend the walk - something we’ll definitely be doing next time!
Parking for the Abereiddy Blue Lagoon
Parking for the shortest walk to the lagoon is at Abereiddy Beach. It’s not a huge car park and I can imagine it fills up during the middle of the day on sunny weekends and in the school holidays.
The car park costs £4 for parking no matter how long you stay (it’s not run by the National Trust even though the land is NT, so everyone has to pay, even members). The lagoon itself is free to visit.
When we visited there was a snack van onsite, but I don’t know if it’s there year round or not.
Getting to Abereiddy Beach
The easiest way to get to Abereiddy Beach is by car, though the final few miles to the beach are on a very narrow road - another reason to try and avoid peak times as it’s really hard to pass people!
Abereiddy Beach is located around an hour’s drive from Pembroke, and 40 minutes from Haverfordwest.
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