Journeying | Pilgrimage Holidays | Christian Walking Holidays | Christian Short Breaks

Cost

£995 single en-suite
£925 sharing en-suite

Description

For a thousand years the Wye Valley in the borderlands between England and Wales has attracted people to live a contemplative life. More monasteries and abbeys have been founded in this one valley than anywhere else in Britain and Ireland. Why and why here? We'll be looking for answers in this fascinating hiking holiday up the Wye Valley from Chepstow, with its magnificent Norman castle, via Tintern Abbey with its romantic ruins that inspired the poetry of Wordsworth, to Abbey Dore where we discover an abbey church the size of a cathedral hidden away in a farmyard, to Llanthony Priory and Capel-y-Ffin where visions of Mary have appeared and over wild hills through Gospel Pass to Hay-on-Wye, the world's first Book Town.

We'll follow the amazing story of monasticism in this valley from the 11th century Normans, through the destruction of the Reformation in the 1530s, through to the resurgence of monasticism with the Victorian mystics and with the artists and writers from the Arts & Crafts Movement who sought creative inspiration and peace here after the First World War.

The story is not just about history though. Monasticism in the valley is alive and well and we'll being staying for the week in Belmont Abbey on the edge of Hereford, whose monks still follow the Rule of St Benedict in their beautiful abbey built by Pugin in 1859. We'll find out more about their contemplative way of life and we'll look at how some of their practices such as the daily office, meditation and lectio divina can be applied to ordinary life outside the abbey, giving us the chance to adopt some of their contemplative ways when we return home.

Walks and Excursions

Day 1: Arrival:
Arrive at Belmont Abbey, settle in, enjoy the grounds and there's an option to join the monks at their Vespers service.

Day 2: Chepstow Priory to Tintern Abbey on the Wye Valley Walk:
A delightful 6 mile walk past the imposing Norman Chepstow Castle along the wooded banks of the River Wye, with spectacular views over the Bristol Channel and finishing with a tour of Tintern Abbey, whose beautiful romantic ruins inspired the great poem of the same name by William Wordsworth in 1798.

Day 3: Belmont Abbey to Abbey Dore along the Golden Valley Pilgrim Way:
We follow the beautiful pilgrim way for 11 miles through rolling pastoral landscapes ending at the unexpected delight of Abbey Dore, a former medieval Cistercian Abbey hidden away in a modern-day farmyard. The abbey church is the size of a cathedral and survived the Reformation through its conversion into a parish church. For those who don't fancy the 11 mile walk we have an alternative 2 mile walk along the banks of the River Wye to Hereford Cathedral, where we visit the cathedral's library that is home to the Magna Carta of 1217 and the Mappa Mundi from 1300. We then go by car to Abbey Dore to join the others as they arrive on foot, stopping off at Kilpeck church established by a Crusader knight with its intriguing Sheela na Gig above the entrance doors.

Day 4: Llanthony Priory to Capel-y-Ffin
We start the day at the ruins of this Augustinian abbey destroyed during the Reformation in the 1530s. We then walk up on to Offa's Dyke path - named after the wall built by the 8th Century Mercian King to control the border between England and Wales. After a plateau walk we descend into Capel-y-Ffin, renowned for its tiny wonky wooden church and a monastery built by the self-styled Father Ignatius in the 1870s, that later became home to a community of artists and writers who came here in the 1920s to find creative inspiration and peace after the horrors of the First World War. This is also the place where apparitions of the Virgin Mary were seen over a two-week period in 1880 by boys from a nearby farm and by monks from the monastery.

Day 5: Gospel Pass and Hay Bluff into Hay-on-Wye
We follow in the footsteps of the monks from the abbey as we hike over Gospel Pass along the wild hills of Hay Bluff with its spectacular views of the Brecon Beacons mountains. We rejoin Offa's Dyke path as we descend into Hay-on-Wye, the world's first Book Town and home to the international literary festival. Hay is crammed with bookshops of every kind and we have time for a browse and to enjoy afternoon tea in one of the town's many cafés.

Day 6: Guided Tour of Hereford Cathedral and leave for home:
After checking out of Belmont Abbey we take a short journey into Hereford Cathedral for a guided tour that lasts around an hour. The cathedral is of particular interest to American pilgrims as its library is home to the Magna Carta from 1217, which has a direct line to the US Bill of Rights and Constitution enshrining the principal of habeas corpus ensuring that no person is held without legal justification. After that we transfer train travellers and their bags to the station and transfer the remaining guests back to their cars at the abbey.

Accommodation

We'll be staying at Belmont Abbey in farmland on the edge of Hereford. This is an abbey run by the English Benedictine Order with some 13 monks and we are very welcome to join in with their daily office services. All rooms are en-suite and have recently been refurbished to a high standard. All meals are provided by their in-house catering staff, including a continental breakfast, packed lunch and an evening meal in the well-appointed dining room overlooking the cloister garden.

Getting there

Please arrive at the Abbot's Lodge guesthouse in Belmont Abbey by 2.30pm on 6th July. The address is Belmont Abbey, Ruckhall Lane, Belmont, Hereford HR2 9RZ. There is a guest car park to the left of the guesthouse entrance. For those arriving by train we will be running a pick-up from Hereford Station at 2pm. If you cannot make this time the Abbey is a 2 mile taxi ride from the station. On the last day we will be having a guided tour of Hereford Cathedral at 11.05am that takes around 1 hour. The station is a short walk from the cathedral.

Contact

With Iain Tweedale, Cheryl 'Pepper' Tettmar and Jo Reed.
For more details please contact us on:
Iain: tweedale.iain@gmail.com +44 (0)7904 042976
Pepper: cheryltettmar@gmail.com +44 (0)7977 163032

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