Wye Valley Cliffs, Caves, Castle, Abbey and the 69 Bus

Those of us with private transport will leave the Tintern Abbey car park (parking fee about £3 including a coupon for £3 redeemable at the nearby pub) at 10:25am to get the 10:41am bus (about £2:95; exact change only) to Chepstow Bus station, where we will meet those arriving by public transport at 10:55am. (There is also a free car park about 1/3 of a mile from the Abbey; instead of turning off the A466 into the Abbey complex, continue North for a few hundred yards to a cross roads, where you turn left, the car park is then after several hundred yards on the right).

We will then explore Chepstow going through the town centre to view the 1816 Regency cast iron Wye Bridge, then up by the river to Chepstow Castle. Then we follow the Wye Valley walk, trying to spot the severely decayed remnants of the Alcove, the Platform, the Grotto, the Double View and the Druids Temple and small caves as we head towards the Giants Cave.

We will pass through the Giant’s cave and the Cold Bath to get to the Lower Wyndcliff. From here we will waft our way up the cliff via the 365 steps and on to the Eagles Nest view point to see the Wye valley, Chepstow, both Severn Bridges and England (described by Coleridge as “the whole world imaged in its vast circumference”). Then along the top of the cliff, followed by a steep, rocky, tree root infested descent to Tintern Abbey.