Ewenny Priory — Attraction in Ewenny

Ewenny - a stop on the St Thomas Way - is a rural village in the Vale of Glamorgan, and a true Marcher location: a place of borders and crossing-places, where historic paths and old ways wind across the landscape.

Ewenny was shaped by its Benedictine Priory in the Middle Ages, founded in the early twelfth century (probably) by William de Londres, who also built the first motte and bailey castle at neighbouring Ogmore.

Much of the medieval Priory is still visible today, at Ewenny Priory Church, renowned as the most complete Norman church in south Wales.

Highlights include the Romanesque arches supported by round pillars with scalloped capitals (in the church nave), fourteenth-century geometric patterned tiles in the crossing, and impressive stonework in the south transept, such as tombs of founders and priors, a twelfth-century carving of the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, and ancient Celtic Christian stones, pre-dating the Priory. The presbytery (chancel) has stunning twelfth-century barrel- and...

It's free to enter. There's not much to look around so I wouldn't travel here just to see the priory unless I lived nearby, but if you're heading to an attraction in the surrounding area like Ogmore Beach or Dunraven Bay (Southerndown) it's worth a visit on the way or on the way back.

Although, backtracking a little on my comments, the priory is set in beautiful surroundings, so it would probably be a nice place to come and relax in the sunshine or under the shade of a tree and while away the day to the sound of pheasants and peacocks that can both be seen here (although on my first visit the peacocks decided to torment me, calling out from every direction but never revealing...

It's billed as a historic Church, I turned up without searching anything about it and basically I'm not sure what I was supposed to see. Parking is a lay-by, the church is open so we wandered inside, there's a back area that has all the old pieces, floor tiles and inscribed stone. That's it, very little information, if you go here do a little research online to have some idea about what you're looking at. There is some other old buildings about but I wasn't sure if it was part of it, some parts marked as private. It's very, very peaceful here and it's amazing to thing that 900 years ago monks lived in these very rooms but I felt just as lost when I left as...