Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey stands beside the River Wye in Monmouthshire, on the Welsh side of the border with England. Founded in 1131 by Walter de Clare, it was the first Cistercian house in Wales and the second in Britain. The monks came from L’Aumône Abbey in France and later established two daughter houses. After the Dissolution in the 16th century the buildings were stripped of lead and left to decay. Cadw now cares for the ruins, which attract about 70,000 visitors each year. The abbey’s remains show four centuries of building, from the early 12th to the early 16th. Little survives of the first church, but the 13th-century rebuilding produced the great Decorated Gothic church seen today. Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, paid for the new church, whose east window carried his coat of arms. The church measures 228 feet from east to west, with a transept 150 feet wide, built of Old Red Sandstone in shades of purple, buff and grey. Visitors walk among the cruciform church with its aisled nave and square-ended chancel. The cloister, chapter house and monks’ dormitory still stand, though roofless. The refectory and infirmary remain, the latter 107 feet long and 54 feet wide, once divided into cubicles with fireplaces. The abbey’s west front shows a seven-light window set in the gable, completed around 1300. Beyond the ruins the Wye valley offers quiet walks beside the river.