The Wye Valley, despite being a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is steeped in rich industrial heritage and this evidence of the past is protected as well as the natural environment.
Everyone knows of Tintern Abbey and how this most atmospheric of settings saw great change during the Reformation, later inspiring the greatest poets of the Georgian and Victorian ages, but what other gems does the area conceal?
Near Abergavenny lies the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site, where visitors can gain an impression of the realities faced by generations of miners. Go underground and uncover real stories about people from the past.
In Newport, one of Britain's youngest cities, there is an extensive public art trail which includes statues and mosaic murals commemorating the Chartists' fight for democracy. Newport is also the home to the Grade I listed Transporter Bridge which was completed by French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin in 1906. Offering a two-minute trip across the river Usk, this is one of the few surviving aerial ferries in the world.
The Nelson Museum in Monmouth has one of the world’s best collections about Britain’s most famous admiral, even including his glass eye, whilst the Rolls of Monmouth Estate allows you to play a round of golf at the home of one of the founders of Rolls Royce. Or maybe you would like to go back even further in time? Tredegar House, near Newport, previously home to the powerful Morgan dynasty, and one of the finest 17th Century mansions in Britain, would be a great place to start.
Choose also from a wide selection of castles in the region: from the mighty Chepstow Castle at the very entrance to Wales, and overlooking the mouth of the River Wye, to the isolated White Castle near Abergavenny. Watch them all burst into life, with staged banquets and civil war battles at Caldicot Castle, falconry at Raglan Castle, and medieval pageants at Abergavenny Castle.
