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Cwmhir Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in the early twelfth century in the remote valley of Cwm Hir in Radnorshire, Wales. The abbey was established as a daughter house of Abbey Dore in Herefordshire and became one of the largest Cistercian churches in Wales, with a notably extended nave designed to rival the great abbeys of England. The surviving ruins, primarily of stone, include substantial remains of the church and other monastic buildings that attest to the abbey's considerable resources and architectural ambition during the medieval period. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century, the site fell into decay, though its extensive footprint and remaining masonry preserve evidence of its former prominence as a centre of religious and economic life in the Welsh borderlands.
Cwmhir Abbey is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference RD012. View the official record →
Cwmhir Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in the early twelfth century in the remote valley of Cwm Hir in Radnorshire, Wales. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference RD012.
Cwmhir Abbey dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a abbey. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Cwmhir Abbey is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is RD012.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Llyn Dwr Standing Stone (1.7 km), Llyn Dwr Cairn (1.7 km), Tomen Bedd Ugre Mound & Bailey Castle (4.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Cwmhir Abbey's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Cwmhir Abbey stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.