Fossils can be found along the stream bed, although some are of poor quality, and along the cliffs to the side of the beach the rock formations are revealed as vertical beds. The evidence of early human habitation consists of many flintmicroliths from the Mesolithic and Neolithic ages, housed in local museums. The cromlech known as the King's Quoit is south of Manorbier bay and beach.
Later evidence points to occupation of The Dak with the finding of a perforated mace head as well as Bronze Ageburial mounds on the Ridgeway. Fortifications also seem to have been prominent including an Iron Age enclosure near Manorbier station and the site of a multivallate, meaning multiple ditches, promontory fort at Old Castle Head where there are remains of hut platforms within the ditches. A well-restored lime kiln is in Mud Lane behind the castle. To the east of Manorbier, on the side of the road to Lydstep, is an area of strip lynchets dating to early Anglo Saxon times and perhaps as early as the Bronze Age.
The Norman knight Odo de Barri was granted the lands of Manorbier, Penally and Begelly in gratitude for his military help in conquering Pembrokeshire after 1103. The first Manorbier Castle was motte and bailey style, with the stone walls being added in the next century by later Normans.
St James's parish church dates from the 12th century and is a Grade I listed building.[3] A large number of other buildings and structures in the parish are listed.[4]
Giraldus Cambrensis (ca. 1146 – ca. 1223), also known as Gerald of Wales was a Cambro-Norman priest, historian and son of William de Barri, was born in the village and called it "the pleasantest place in Wales".[6][7]