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Tours > Wales > Abergavenny
Abergavenny (Y Fenni: Uh Vennie)
We know we are in Wales proper when we reach Abergavenny, a pleasant and busy market town at the confluence of the Usk and the Gavenny. The town lies in a hollow surrounded by its mountains: the Sugar Loaf, Ysgyryd Fach (Uskirrid Vack) and Skirrid Fawr (Uskirrid Vowr) and the strangely-named Blorenge, or Blue Ridge.
Abergavenny had its origins when the Romans built a small fort here to guard the route that followed the Usk into Wales. The Normans then erected their castle, notorious in the history of the Welsh people as the site of the massacre of many of their countrymen by William de Braose (an act which brought the total destruction of the castle in revenge). Owain Glyndwr sacked the town in 1404, a calamity repeated by the forces of Parliament in 1646. Hardly anything remains of the castle, on the grounds is the Abergavenny and District Museum.
In town, St. Mary's Church was originally connected with a Benedictine Priory, built in the 11th century and enlarged in the 14th. Its twenty-four carved oak stalls in the chancel are named for a 15th century prior. The daughter of Sir David Gam of Agincourt fame, said to be the model for Shakespeare's Welsh character Fluellen, is buried here. She was married to Sir William ap Thomas, father of the first Earl of Pembroke and the family of the Herberts, so well-known in Welsh history. In more modern times, the Nazi leader Rudolph Hess was imprisoned here at Maindiff Court, during World War II, after he had parchuted into England for reasons known only to himself.
Abergavenny is an ideal spot to tour the country of the Black Mountains. Sgyryd Fawr is also called the Holy Mountain, for a landslide is supposed to have occurred here on the night of Christ's crucifixion. On Blorenge is a memorial to the horse Foxhunter, the legendary showjumper and Olympic champion of the 1950's. The border castles of Skenfrith, Grosmont, and White Castle are all nearby.
In the Vale of Ewyas, the romantic ruins of Llanthony Priory with its row of 14th century pointed arches, now host a restaurant and hotel. Walter Savage Landor, the 19th century poet and author, lived in the Priory house. A short four miles up the valley at Capel y Ffin (Kappel uh Feen) is Llanthony Abbey, founded in 1908 by an Anglican clergyman; and just over the hills is Partishow (or Patricio) Church, with its fine early Tudor rood screen, carved from Irish Oak.
Next Stop: Hereford and the Wye Valley
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