Weird and wonderful: the Guinness World Records made in Pembrokeshire

First up is the record for the oldest horse twins. This was set in 2007 by Taff and Griff, who were owned by the Veteran Horse Society, in St Dogmaels.

Tiff and Griff (also known as Bill and Ben) who were born in 1982 and are identical male twins of the Cremello breed, measuring 11.2 hands high. The twins spent their entire lives together giving children rides at London Zoo before coming to the Veteran Horse Society.

Another strange but skilful record was broken in Tenby’s Giltar Hotel. In 2003 Portugal's Gualdino Guerreiro managed to keep a golf ball aloft between two golf clubs for 59 min 58 seconds.

This smashed the original record for Golf ball control, two clubs - duration of 13 min 47 seconds set by Jonas Belander in the studios of Guinness Rekord TV, Stockholm, Sweden, in February 2001.

More sporting feats have been set in the county. In June the OA Giants, comprising of Bill Donnelly, Keith Garry, Chris Judge, Colin Lindsay, John McElroy and Dominic Mudge (all Ireland), swam from Carne Pier, County Wexford, Ireland, to St David's Head via St George's Channel in a time of 34 hours 25 minutes.

This was also the first time that this waterway has ever been successfully traversed by swimmers.

The expedition set out from Carne Pier at 7 a.m. local time on 5 June and arrived at St David's RNLI lifeboat station at 5.25 p.m. on 6 June.

Along the way, the swimmers encountered dolphins and the final swimmer (Donnelly) had to negotiate a challenging stretch of reef known as "The Bitches and Whelps" with rocky outcrops, standing waves and whirlpools.

Sticking with a seagoing theme, the world’s longest-serving family of lighthouse keepers kept the light burning at Pembrokeshire’s famous Smalls Lighthouse and a St Ann’s Head.

Five generations and eight members of the Knott family (UK) were lighthouse keepers for a combined 278 years of service between 1730 and 1910.

The family profession started with William Knott who maintained South Foreland Low lighthouse in Kent between 1730 and 1780; the line ended with Henry Thomas Knott who retired from Skerries Lighthouse in the Isle of Anglesey off Wales in 1910.

Henry Thomas Knott: 1873–1910 was also lighthouse keeper at St Ann's Head while Edmond Horton Knott: 1892–1902, kept the light at The Smalls.

More in need of a chequered flag than a lighthouse were Gareth Griffiths, Stephen Lowe, Ben Jones and Ceri Shepherd who set the record for the highest mileage recorded in 24 hours on an indoor track by a four-man team driving 160cc karts.

The four drivers clocked up 1537.32kms or 955.24miles at the Kartrac Karting Centre, Haverfordwest, on March 4-5 1997.

On two wheels not four were cousins Tim and Andy Caldwell who left St Davids to set a Guinnness World Record in June 2021.

They set the record for the fastest accumulative time crossing the United Kingdom by tandem bicycle (male) IS1’, a classification for people with visual impairments.

The cousins made a time of 24 hrs 43 min 47 cycling from St David’s to Ness Point in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

Father-of-five Tim lost most of his sight after having a cardiac arrest in 2013 which also affected his motor skills. He had to relearn how to walk and talk and was unable to return to work.

His cousin Andy encouraged him to start riding a tandem to help him when Tim was experiencing depression and they have subsequently completed a number of challenges.

Tim hopes that his efforts will inspire others to focus on a goal and try something they never thought would be possible to achieve.