In the chronicles of human effort, this corner of Carmarthenshire can take its place alongside Mount Everest and Cape Kennedy.ʼ So says the official citation that describes Pendine Sandsʼ impressive new Museum of Land Speed, a beautifully situated, pristine and architecturally exciting building that opened last year to celebrate the many heroic speed-record attempts that have taken place on the historic beach it overlooks.
The smart new building would ordinarily be modern enough and imposing enough to dominate any setting. But at this museumʼs home on the south-western coast of Wales, the sheer grandeur of the natural surroundings takes centre stage: an impossibly vast expanse of flat, sandy Carmarthenshire beach spreads out in front of Pendine, a coastal settlement of around 500 souls that doubles its population during the holiday seasons.
Pendine village faces southwards so, even in winter, copious quantities of diffused light bounce off the sea to give the place a striking brightness, interrupted only on stormy days when the whole beach turns into a gleaming expanse of rainwater that quickly drains miraculously away. It is the greatest natural apron imaginable, and a unique drawcard for car enthusiasts of all persuasions: the beach runs eastwards for a full seven miles along the Carmarthen Bay coastline, and when the tide recedes, the beach reaches more than half a mile directly out to sea.