Llanthony

Llanthony Priory

We were in Usk on family business and our cousins Ruth and Jon took us to walk in Black Mountains. We drove along the Vale of Ewyas and parked in the car park by the fantastic ruined Priory at Llanthony.  We could immediately see the scale and grandeur of the building.

The story of its origins is rather wonderful. A nobleman is out hunting, sees a ruined chapel of St David and decides there and then to become a hermit. A couple of years later the former chaplain of Queen Matilda joins him, they gather disciples and begin to build a church. Later it becomes the core of a priory for the Augustinian canons. The church which remains today was started in about 1180 and was suppressed in 1538 under Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. The architectural style is transitional between Norman and early Gothic. The picture shows the south transept and part of the nave.

To answer the next obvious question, it seems that Augustinian canons follow the rule of St Augustine of Hippo and engage both in monk-like contemplation and in ministry to those outside. A priory is a monastery headed by a prior: it may be subordinate to an abbey (headed by an abbot) or not meet the criteria to be designated as an abbey by the Pope.

But now back to the walk. We walked past the little church of St David. Pevsner (actually John Newman in the Gwent/Monmouthshire volume of the Buildings of Wales) explains that it was fitted up as a church after the dissolution, using part of the 12th century infirmary as the nave, and of course subject to later modifications and a 19th century restoration.

We now walked across fields following the Beacons Way and climbed up through woodland and another field to reach the steep slope of the flank of a long ridge. As we climbed there was a good view south east to the Sugar Loaf (Y Fal in Welsh), a landmark for miles around at 550m.

At the top the Beacons Way joins the Offa's Dyke Path. But before heading along it, we admired the view of England.

We turned right and walked along the ridge with the Sugar Loaf in the distance.

Before long we came on a group of seemingly wild ponies.

We were now on Hatterall Hill at 531m and the silver ribbon of the Severn could be seen in the distance.

At this point time was running out and the clouds were darkening, so we decided to retrace our steps. After a short way the whole of the curving ridge lay before us stretching away to the north west.

While on the ridge we heard and saw several Sky Larks, a considerable number of Meadow Pipits and a couple of very large black birds, which we identified with reasonable confidence as Ravens.

On the slope back down there was time for a few more efforts to capture the setting of Llanthony Priory and to see a brown hawk, smaller than a Buzzard - perhaps a Hen Harrier.

Map: Explorer OL 13 (Brecon Beacons).

Distance: about 6 miles.

Conditions: sunny and warm, but windy and quite fresh on the ridge.

Rating: four and half stars.

Flower of the day

It was lovely to see this Celandine in the woods.