Abbey in Ruins

If there's one thing that I discovered about myself, while travelling around the UK in May of 1991, it was that when it comes to historic sites, I really like visiting a castle or church that lies in ruins to seeing one that is fully intact. I know, it sounds weird, but that's me.

A few years earlier, for example, when I visited a friend in Scotland, I took a day trip out to Robert Burns country: primarily, the town of Ayr, on the west lowlands coast, and the nearby castle of Culzean. The castle, built in the late 1700s, has pristine gardens and the stately building is equally impressive. And while I enjoyed my visit, I had a bit of a 'meh' attitude to it, compared with the haggard and weathered appearance of Edinburgh Castle.

Culzean Castle was too pretty for my taste.

When DW and I planned our trip to Wales, I wanted to see as many castles as we could in the week that we had our rental vehicle. And in five days, we visited seven castles and two medieval churches, all of them in some state of ruin.

And I couldn't have been happier.

When we left Stratford-upon-Avon, in England, our plan was to drive to the town of Conwy, in the north of Wales, and afterwards find a place to pitch our tent for the evening. But on the way to Conwy, I wanted to make a bit of a detour.

While we were researching Wales, I came across a picture of an abbey, in ruins, set in a valley and by a pond. It was the photograph in the tour booklet that drew my eye and I thought that I'd like to recreate that photo. So we looked into this spot, realized that we could easily add Valle Crucis Abbey to our route without losing much time.

The day had started out overcast and got progressively worse as we reached the Welsh border. Driving the winding roads, we were met with off and on rain. But when we reached the abbey, the weather was in a constant state of flux, changing from overcast to partially clear, and back to rain.

We climbed all over the ruins of this Cistercian church, which was founded in 1201 by Prince Madog ap Gruffydd (pronounced Griffith) and the so-called white monks, taking several photos (but not too many: this was the age of 35mm film, after all).

While this was only day one of our tour through Wales, it remains one of my favourite stops of the trip. And while it was a relatively small place when compared with other castles and ruins, it was far more enjoyable than the pristine Culzean, in Scotland.

And I was able to somewhat recreate the photo that drew me to this picturesque spot^*.

Next stop, the walled town of Conwy.

* The third-to-last shot is similar to the one that I saw in the guide book. For the final two photos, I enhanced the sky, which appears white and bland in the originals.