Valle Crucis Abbey

Valle Crucis Abbey near Llangollen, north Wales,
is set in a beautiful location.

Building work began at this site in 1201.

Unfortunately, at some point in the more recent past,
planning permission was given to the owner
of the surrounding land to allow it to be used
for camping and as a caravan park.

This makes the approach to the Abbey ruins really ugly,
but once within the Abbey,
the clever use of high stone walls blocks
most of the view of caravans.

This is probably the best preserved Abbey in Wales.

Remember you can click on the pictures
if you want to look more closely.


The front wall of the Abbey church, as seen from inside.
To give you an idea of the scale of the buildings,
see the wooden benches either
side of the door - each would seat 3-4 people.


The large fishpond, behind the Abbey,
is the last remaining monastic fishpond in Wales.
There were so many days in the year on which
meat could not be eaten,
that most religious houses had a fishpond
to supply them with fresh fish.

The main doors into the church, shown below,
are about 10 feet tall, and are set into a wonderfully
carved arched doorway.
Soft stone was used for doorways and windows,
as it was much easier to carve.
Unfortunately, this also means it weathers more quickly,
and carved detail is lost over the years


Some old carved stones have been re-used in the buildings,
as shown here in this part of the abbey, built in the 1500s.



There is a display of carved stones in the abbey ,
this is a lovely example.


Look at the detail in the hinges of the abbey church doors.


Also the detail of the keyhole and handle mounting.
(handle is only on the inside of the doors)


This is a view of the chapter house,
where all the monks gathered each day
to listen to a chapter of the bible being read.

This is quite a small room,
and probably would only hold 30 people at most,
compared to the Abbey church,
which would have had the capacity
to hold several hundred people.

Talley Abbey

Talley Abbey is about 7 miles from Llandeilo. It is located in a small but attractive village in a lovely valley. I suppose some of the pretty houses nearby have been built from some of the stone originally used in the Abbey.

It is hard to imagine from the photo just how high those arches are, but I would estimate that the large arch must be 30 - 35 feet, and the smaller arch around 20 feet tall. It must have been quite majestic when first built.

Sadly, like most abbeys and monasteries, it fell into disuse and disrepair following the dissolution of the monastries by Henry VIII in the 1500s...

Terrific Tintern

Tintern Abbey today is a ruin,
in the beautiful Wye valley in south east Wales,
close to the English border...

It once was a place of worship
and a living 'village' full of monks.

It was built on a grand scale,
but fell into disrepair following the
dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536.

Today is is a tourist attraction, partly because of its grandeur,
partly because of it's location in a magnificent setting.

Some of the stonework is being replaced.
The renewed stone gives you much more of an idea of
how beautiful it must have looked when it was built.
The stone used for the carved areas is much softer
(and easier to carve) than the stone used for walls,
but this means it weathers and loses the detail
and eventually wears thin enough
in places to lose it's strength.

A carved piece which probably formed part of a vaulted ceiling.
There were similar pieces nearby,
with different designs.
Near the gift shop there is a display of many
pieces of carved stone which all originally came
from a screened carved 'wall' within the Abbey.

Maybe one day they will put all the pieces together
and renew the missing parts.

The main doors leading into the Abbey. A smaller door has been cut into the large door on the left, as the large doors were too big and heavy to open on an everyday basis.

The same doors from the inside

Tintern Abbey is absolutely enormous.
If you click on the image above,
you will see a human wearing a blue coat.

She will give you an idea of the
scale of the remains of the Abbey.

JMW Turner thought it beautiful enough to paint it in the late 1700s:

http://tinyurl.com/24wa2l

and around the same time,
William Wordsworth found it inspiring and wrote a poem:

http://www.tintern.org.uk/wordswor.htm

This window is massive, and stunning.
Imagine how beautiful it must have been,
with stained glass panels, and the light streaming through,
it must have made the interior space dance with colour.

Ye olde serving hatch!

This is where the monks
washed (left) and stored (right) the dishes.

A view through some unrenovated windows

Oh, I just had to take another picture through a window.

I find them fascinating.
It must be symbolic of something,
but I don't know what it means!!!!

Strata Florida Abbey, Wales

Strata Florida Abbey/Abaty Ystrad Fflur
is in the wilds of Ceredigion,
near Pontrhydfendigaid
(try saying that without spitting your false teeth out!!!)

The abbey, built by Cistercian monks,
was visited by Gerald of Wales in 1188

This is a very splendidly carved arch - but
all the carving is on the exterior face,
the interior face is quite plain.

Little remains of the Abbey,
but there is a collection of beautiful floor tiles
housed in this structure,
which gives them some protection from the weather.

Some of the tiles,
made almost 1000 years ago,
are shown below.

Cymer Abbey

It was a wild, wet, windy, Welsh winter's day, when I visited the remains of Cymer Abbey, just north of Dolgellau. I will come back and see if I can get better images in the summer....

The Abbey as seen from the car park.
This was once home to many Cistercian monks.
These ruins are more than 800 years old.
The Abbey was dissolved over 500 years ago.
If you want to know more about the Abbey,
have a look at this website:

http://www.castlewales.com/cymer.html

A doorway looking out over what was once a cloister?

An arch in the wall - I must find out what this was.

A set of 3 beautiful arches.