St Justinian's — Attraction in St. David's and the Cathedral Close

Saint Justinian (Welsh: Stinan, Jestin, Iestin) was a 6th-century hermit who lived on Ramsey Island, near St. David's, in the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire. Tradition states that he was a Breton nobleman who settled on the island of Ramsey as a hermit. Justinian would stand in the cold sea praying for hours, believing the extreme discipline helped him focus on God. He was visited by Saint David who was so impressed with his holiness that he made him his confessor and abbot of the monastery on the mainland. However, Justinian became disillusioned with the poor attitude of the monks at St Davids and took himself away the short distance to remote Ramsey Island to establish a more holy spiritual community. His more loyal monks followed him. Legend has it that he was eventually murdered by some disgruntled servants or monks fed up with his strict regime, it is said by beheading him. Apparently he picked up his head and crossed Ramsey Sound walking on the water carrying his head in his arms and his body was buried in the small ruined chapel which still stands on the mainland at St Justinian's, immediately opposite his island home; his bones were later moved to St Davids Cathedral. During the reformation, Bishop William Barlow was strongly opposed to the veneration of relics, pilgrimages, and other Catholic practices. In an attempt to suppress the cult of St David, at St David's Cathedral, in 1538 he stripped St David's shrine of its jewels and confiscated the relics of St David and St Justinian in order to counteract...

We went on a boat trip around the island. What an amazing few hrs. Our dog was able to join us and from the moment we parked, we were struck by its beauty. Our guide was very knowledgeable and took delight in sharing her knowledge. We were taken off the beaten track to view porpoises feeding. This was before the tour started. We were lucky enough to see a baby seal cub who became very shy and waddled behind a rock. The archeology of the island was explained to us in detail and the buzz was palatable. Did you know, a body of land can only be called an island if it has fresh running water? This island had a couple of fresh springs constantly streaming...

I went on a whale watching tour, it was so fun more in the afternoon when the sun was setting there were lovely birds and puffins diving into the water for fish, it was so great though we didn't see any whales we Saw a lot of dolphins swimming beside the boat it was magical and seeing the landscape of the hills and land from a distance so peaceful. I would however when taking photos to wait the boat had flown down though the boat will still shake a bit so bring a 400 ml lens not a 800+ due to you won't be able to focus the lens on the subjects due to the boats movement, still for me got some nice photos...