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!!!!

White Castle, Monmouthshire, Wales

Not such a beautiful day to take photographs -
and the dull skies make the castle look a little grim!
This castle is along a country lane
about 7 or 8 miles from Abergavenny,
and is perched on a hilltop (like many other castles).
The views must be stunning on a clear day.


Here is the entrance - two large defensive towers
and a nice archway,
accessed over a modern bridge over the moat - there
once would have been a drawbridge, of course.



An arrowloop - good for shooting arrows out of,
hard to shoot arrows into,
and therefore protecting the archer.



A view of the curtain wall (the outside wall) of the castle,
where you can see two of the towers.



There's not much left of the insides of the castle.





The views from the top of the tower
are stunning - but not very clear on this glum day.

Skenfrith, Wales

Skenfrith is a beautiful small village between Abergavenny & Monmouth. In addition to a ruined castle and wonderful church, there are some interesting old houses, and 'The Bell at Skenfrith' - a fabulous pub restaurant in which to eat superb food!

Here are some pictures of parts the castle:

I have no idea what this feature once was!


The remains of an old fireplace.

A window, with some of the original
13th century ironwork still in place.


The watergate, in the plain high walls,
leading to the nearby river
(viewed from the river side).


Inside the tower - you can clearly see the square holes in the walls, where big wooden beams once rested, supporting the wooden floor of a room.


The tower itself.
Not much of the castle remains,
other than the tower and the external walls.

Below are some pictures of old gravestones in Skenfrith churchyard - they may have fallen over as the years have passed, and now they are positioned against the churchyard wall:





This is an interesting window,
in a wooden 'lean to' extension or garage
on the side of one of the houses


A beautiful original door in one of the village's old houses


One of the church windows


The beautiful church tower.

If you want to know more about Skenfrith castle, look here:

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

and more about the Bell at Skenfrith:

http://www.skenfrith.co.uk

Grosmont Castle

Grosmont Castle is near Abergavenny, Wales.

Once upon a time it must have been a spectacular sight.

If you want to know more about the castle
and it's history, here is a link:

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




The walls remain quite high,
but it is not easy to work out what was where.




It was a very misty winter's day today,
but the setting is quite beautiful.



This is what's left of a 700 year old
chimney - and it's still pretty impressive!

Chepstow Castle

Chepstow Castle is the oldest castle in Wales.
It started relatively small, then over the centuries it grew,
and grew, and now covers a large area.

It is a clifftop castle, with the river Wye far below.

Supplies for the castle used to come up the river by boat,
and were then winched up the cliff face
and into the storage areas near the castle kitchens.

If you want to know more about the history of
Chepstow Castle, please see the wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chepstow_Castle

The castle sitting on top of the cliff

These doors were the main doors at the front of the castle until a few years ago.
They have been replaced with doors made to the same design,
and the original doors have been tested
and found to be the oldest castle doors in Europe, at around 1000 years old.

A wall of windows - some with glass, some without, and some bricked up.
The visitor exhibition is ion the rooms where the windows have glass in them

Inside the great hall.
What a magnificent place it must have been in its heydey.

I like windows. Even windows which have no glass!

The great tower. It is huge in real life, and towers over the river below.

A view of England across the river Wye, from the castle walls.

Raglan Castle, Wales

Wales is said to have more castles per square mile
than any nation on Earth.

Here are some pictures of the newest castle in Wales -
Raglan Castle, built in the 15th century.

If you want to know more about Raglan Castle,
there are plenty of websites, here is one:

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


The pictures on this blog are my personal view of Raglan,
and you will soon realise that I like windows!!!!

The castle from afar

You can see the French influence on the
stonework at the top of the tower -
Welsh castles aren't generally that fancy!

The main gateway

Castles were for living in, as well as for defending.
This was once a very grand window,
looking out over the courtyard.

A view of the bridge over the moat,
joining the Great Tower and the Fountain Court

A small window, easy to look out of but difficult
for attackers to get a good shot at you.
A similar window is shown below

The toilet - complete with original stone seat.
It is known as a garderobe, the picture below
shows the doorway - presumably there was a door there once!

An interior view from the Fountain Court

Looking out through a window

A doorway, up some stairs, through another doorway, to....

What remains of the carving on a fireplace on an upper floor.
The floor has gone, and so have the walls above the fireplace

Another window, another view

More beautiful Welsh countryside through another window

Looking down inside the Great Tower

View from the Great Tower, looking to the west