Staying away
The lake forms a focal point for the village
simpler times
Stay in
HAVING NOW BEEN OPEN JUST OVER A YEAR, PEMBROKESHIRE HOLIDAY VILLAGE BLUESTONE
IS REDEFINING THE MEANING OF UK SHORT BREAKS THROUGH ITS REMARKABLE SUCCESS
IN RECREATING AN IDYLLIC VILLAGE COMMUNITY, AS WYN JENKINS DISCOVERED.
There is something in all of us that yearns
for simpler and more innocent times. Older
Bluestone’s brasserie
The area represents Bluestone’s heartbeat.
And remarkably perhaps — for the village is
generations love to regale us with tales about ultimately artifi cial — it works. The surroundings
how when they grew up children were safe and and nature and lack of traffi c or noise make you
trusted and left to roam. “Everybody knew you relax. The village atmosphere makes you feel
and knew your parents. You were safe and you good about life. It touches on those memories of
didn’t dare get up to too much mischief,” they what your grandparents told you and makes you
claim. want to stay longer and live more like this when
you leave.
Such nostalgia — real or imagined — is
powerful stuff. The idea of the quaint and idyllic Bluestone builds on this idea of community
little village based around community and
and countryside, part of the Pembrokeshire
in other ways. The many activities help to do
friendship and trust is something that is deeply
Coast National Park, are stunning.
this: a Teddy Bear’s picnic in the woods for
appealing in an age of instant communication the children; communal activities such as raft
where ‘community’ has become something
But Bluestone’s biggest appeal is the idea at its
building; organised nature walks and bush trail
many of us visit online.
heart: the focal point of the resort, an easy walk
from the log cabin accommodation surrounding
activities; the facilities in the leisure centre and
Blue Lagoon, the enormous onsite water park.
To understand this appeal is to understand the
it, is an eclectic mixture of cottages, shops and
most basic yet important attraction of Bluestone.
restaurants designed to replicate a genuine rural
But on the Sunday night of this particular visit,
The fi ve star Pembrokeshire holiday village,
village. A stream happily meanders through the
that sense of community was taken further still.
which opened just over a year ago, offers luxury
square where residents eat, drink, play, watch
At dusk, residents gathered at Bluestone’s lake
accommodation set in picturesque surroundings.
over their children, shop and gossip.
— the site’s focal point in terms of topography,
The accommodation is excellent and the views located next to the central village — to sit and
110 swansealife October 2009
Bluestone.indd 110 21/09/2009 17:24:08
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