h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Tintern Abbey, Co Wexford, Ireland - A811955
Author: Gnomon - U151503

A place I visited in July.

Since reading your entry in "Gnomon's Guide" I've been wondering where the name "Tintern" comes from. It sounds like "tintinnabulation" and is rather a lovely name.

....

On rummaging around in Wiki, it would seem that it derives from the Welsh:

>>The name Tintern may derive from the Welsh din + d/teyrn, meaning "rocks of the king".<<

This is not verified anywhere on the official Tintern or Tintern Abbey sites (the Welsh ones, anyway)

Just saying.

I never thought to check the origin of the name. I've found one book from 1806 which claims it is from "dindryn" meaning a fortified place. Another dating from about 1825 says that din + treyn is more likely but that this would mean fortress of the king. Neither source seems to be in any way certain.

This was interesting reading - when I saw the title, I thought I recognised the Abbey from when I visited Ireland, but of course there is the other one in Wales!

This is an interesting article, which gives me another reason for wanting to visit this part of Ireland.

I wondered if it would help to give a basic description of what visitors might see when they arrive at the Abbey, but perhaps the photo will suffice.

I think that the clause 'This took place in the 1530s and 40s' might be better as 'The closures took place in the 1530s and 40s.'

Thanks MVP. It now says "The closures took place..."

If I get a chance to visit Tintern again soon, I may take some more photos, but the one I provided does give a flavour of the building.

Does the abbey have the typical Cistercian layout, and how much of it is still visible today?

<BB<

I'm afraid I don't know much about Cistercian architecture and don't know what the typical layout is. All that is left in Tintern is the main church building, which is partly in ruins and partly converted to a fortress.

Most Cistercian Abbeys throughout Europe were built to the same layout, with only the scale and degree of grandness differing, so much so that it was said that a blind monk from Scotland could easily find his way around a Cistercian monastery in Scandinavia.

<BB<

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