A trip to Tintern Abbey today. We started with the nearby Colclough Walled Garden which is only a few minutes walk away and can be visited on a combined ticket.
The garden is large by the standard of walled gardens and indeed the walls themselves are quite impressive. There were some pleasant sections with streams running through, but the large kitchen garden area was mostly dug up (it wasn’t clear why at this time of year). Overall, we didn’t feel that the garden quite lived up to its promise and entry fee.
Unfortunately, the widely advertised Tintern Abbey tea rooms were shut and have been since Covid. We were directed to a nearby village, but most eating options there were shut and the remainder not suitable. We then started to drive around looking for somewhere to eat and this took some time as many places in the area seemed to be shut on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Returning to the abbey, we had a good look round and found it reasonably interesting.
Finally, we drove down to Hook lighthouse which had been recommended to us. It is an impressive structure but unfortunately we arrived too late to view the interior. What was particularly galling was that it had a reasonably looking café which had been open and which was actually a shorter drive from Tintern than where we actually ended up for lunch. We could have eaten there, seen the inside of the lighthouse and still had plenty of time to get back and see the abbey.
