Pembrokeshire, South Wales

Unravelling the geology of Pembrokeshire (southwest Wales) has been a rite of passage for British undergraduate students for generations. A favourite destination for an Easter fieldtrip, this complex region contains diverse geology of late Precambrian to Carboniferous age. In the course of a five‐day excursion, a student can uncover evidence for two plate tectonic cycles: the birth of the early Palaeozoic Iapetus Ocean and its death in the Caledonian Orogen, and the reworking of the late Palaeozoic Rheic back‐arc basins on the northern margins of the Variscides. In doing so, there is an opportunity to examine highly variable palaeoenvironments including the deposits of alluvial fans, flood plains, deltas, estuaries, carbonate shelves and deeper marine settings, as well as developing fundamental field skills in geological mapping, structural analysis and sedimentary logging. In this article, I introduce the fascinating story of the geological evolution of Pembrokeshire and describe some of the classic localities useful for basic geological training.