The National Park is more than just beautiful coastline – explore the secret waterways of the Daugleddau Estuary, wooded valleys and rugged Preseli Hills.
Skomar Oddy
Listen to the story of the friendly giant who saved the creatures of the the Haven and left his mark on the edges of the Cleddau.
Once in the sea near where Milford Haven is now, there were two sea monsters. They were fighting in the sea and they fought so fiercely they kicked up lots of mud from the bottom of the ocean.
The mud flew over the land and – SPLAT – it came down on the fields. It came down on the houses. It came down everywhere. Soon the land was very stinky.
In the mud were lots of sea creatures – sea sprites and sea horses and starfish and fishes. Poor things! The sea creatures were stuck. They couldn’t get back in the sea. They were going to die if there was no-one to help them. They wondered what to do. One old sea creature said that some of them that could still move should go up to the mountains and find Skomar Oddy.
So they did. They had to go a long, long way – all the way up to the Preseli Mountains. When they got there, they met little mountain creatures – elves and fairies and pixies – and the little mountain creatures showed them where to go. Soon they heard a rumbling sound. And soon they discovered what the sound was when they went down a tunnel into a big dark cave.
It was Skomar Oddy snoring. Skomar Oddy was a giant and when the sea creatures saw him, they were amazed. He was huge! And he was fast asleep.
How were they going to wake him up? They tried all kinds of things – tickling, jumping, pulling his hair. Then they decided to sing. This is the song that they sang:
Skomar Oddy! Skomar Oddy! Big head and big body! Help us, help us! Help us, help us! Get the mud back in the sea.
Skomar Oddy woke up when the sea creatures and the mountain creatures started to sing. He said he would help the sea creatures. So he lifted them onto his body – onto his ears and his nose and his shoulders – and carried them back towards the sea.
He got there in only six steps and where his feet went when he arrived, he made lots of little beaches in the shapes of his toes. (Those are the beaches along the Cleddau estuary on the way to Milford Haven.) And when Skomar Oddy got to the mud, he scooped it all up and threw it back in the sea.
As for the sea monsters, when they saw Skomar Oddy, they were so frightened that some people say they swam away and no-one ever saw them again. Other people say that they exploded in a million little pieces and that was the end of them.
Pembrokeshire children still remember about Skomar Oddy. He wakes up once every hundred years. If you go up to the Preselis, you might see him yourself.