Llanthony Priory

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Llanthony Priory is a picturesque former Augustinian priory in the beautiful and secluded Vale of Ewyas, within the Black Mountains area of the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales.

[edit] History

The priory dates back to around 1100, when nobleman William de Lacy reputedly came upon a ruined chapel of St. David, and was inspired to devote himself to solitary prayer and study. He was joined by Ersinius, a former chaplain to Queen Matilda, the wife of King Henry I, and then a band of followers. A church was built on the site, dedicated to St John the Baptist, and consecrated in 1108. By 1118, a group of around 40 monks from England founded there an Augustinian priory, the first in Wales.

In 1135, after persistent attacks from the local Welsh population, the monks retreated to Gloucester where they founded a daughter cell, Llanthony Secunda. However, around 1186 another member of the de Lacy family, Hugh the fifth baron, endowed the estate with funds from his Irish estates to rebuild the priory church, and this work was completed by 1217.

The Priory became one of the great medieval buildings in Wales, in a mixture of Norman and Gothic architectural styles. Renewed building took place around 1325, with a new gatehouse. However, following Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion in the early fifteenth century, the Priory seems to have been barely functioning. In 1481 it was formally merged with its daughter cell in Gloucester, and after 1538 both houses were suppressed by Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The buildings at Llanthony gradually decayed to a ruin by the end of the eighteenth century, when they were bought by Colonel Sir Mark Wood, the owner of Piercefield House near Chepstow, who converted some of the buildings into a domestic house and shooting box. He then sold the estate in 1807 to the poet Walter Savage Landor. However, Landor was made bankrupt in 1813, and many of the buildings continued to disintegrate thereafter.

Wood’s house later became the small Abbey Hotel, and the remaining ruins are protected by Cadw. The Offa's Dyke Path runs close by.