An Afternoon at Tintern Abbey, Wales

Many years ago, I visited Tintern Abbey. In fact, I have visited it twice now. My first visit was in July of 2005, and the photographs in this post date from that visit. Tintern Abbey is located in Monmouthshire in Wales, close to the border of England. I visited the abbey after visiting Chepstow Castle, which is only a few miles away. Both attractions can be easily-visited in a day.

Tintern Abbey was founded in 1131 along the river Wye. It was only one of a couple of Cicestcian order monasteries in Britain. The monastery would have been its own little community, and the site did change a lot over the years. The existing ruined structure of the abbey actually dates from the end of the 1200s. The site was a successful monastery until it and all of the monastaries were dissolved by Henry VIII. It became a ruin shortly after that time, and the lead was removed from the roof and sold.

Due to the Wye valley's beauty, tourists often visited the area, and the ruins were one of the attractions to visit. The ruins were used and romanticised about in fine art, poetry and in books. This brought people in to look at them and for the ruins to be better-preserved.