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Discover kete
- Published:
- 06 December 2024
- Expert curated
Today, Kete offers sweeping coastal views and a tranquil setting for wildlife watching and walking, with the route part of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path National Trail.
Yet there’s a lot more to this special place than picture-postcard scenery. Look a little closer at the landscape and you’ll see hints of Kete’s colourful military history. Our National Trust car park stands on the edge of what was once a busy Royal Navy base, used during the Second World War. So whilst you’re visiting, go heritage hunting and discover the important role Kete played in training recruits to detect enemy aircraft.
RAF Kete
The Royal Air Force had the first military base here. Established early in the Second World War, it was a Chain Home Low (CHL) radar station, with the role of tracking low-flying enemy aircraft.
HMS Harrier
By 1944 a Royal Navy training establishment had been built at Kete, HMS Goldcrest 2, which was later commissioned as HMS Harrier – a Royal Navy Fighter Direction School and School of Meteorology.
The base provided training for fighter direction officers, radar technicians and radar plotters. Working together, it was their job to detect enemy aircraft – bombers or torpedo bombers – before they could attack friendly ships and to direct fighter aircraft to shoot them.
Training techniques
Aircraft from nearby bases were used as part of training exercises, simulating mock battles over the sea as they followed navigational instructions from trainees.
During the war when aircraft could not be spared for training use, the Royal Navy used ice cream tricycles. Requisitioned from Walls Ice Cream, each trike was fitted with a radio telephone, a compass and a metronome.
Some of the trikes would pretend to be enemy bombers and steer a course while pedalling in strict time with the metronome. The radar technicians and plotters would provide the positions of the ‘planes’, with the fighter direction officers calculating the necessary course for interception.
A change in direction
The site closed in the 1960s and was later purchased by the National Trust; we care for just under 70 hectares.
Nowadays, it’s all about coastal walks and wildlife watching. Look for birds like chough and peregrine on the clifftop, see our Welsh mountain ponies grazing the headland and the beautiful coastal flowers that are a result of our conservation grazing programme. The area’s now also a Dark Sky Discovery site, making it one of the top places in the UK for stargazing.
More to explore
Just around the coastline is the Marloes Peninsula which we’re lucky enough to care for. Visit Marloes Sands beach, explore the mere and look for seal pups in autumn.