“Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,That on a wild secluded scene impressThoughts of more deep seclusion; and connectThe landscape with the quiet of the sky.”
– William Wordsworth from lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey
Tintern Abbey is the most romantic ruin in Wales– a picturesque, crumbling cathedral that seems the setting of a fairy tale. It’s towering archways frame the pastoral landscape that was the inspiration for many lines of William Wordsworth’s poetry (including some by Allen Ginsberg, who visited the Abbey while on an acid trip).
Tintern Abbey was founded in 1131 by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow. It sits adjacent to the River Wye in Monmouthshire, Wales. The buildings you see when you walk the ruins were built between it’s founding and 1536. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, it fell into disarray and over the years to the present condition you see today.
When visiting make sure you take the meandering Wye footpath around the village and walk the steps that Wordsworth once walked.
