A beautiful abbey founded by the greatest Norman knight 

Tintern Abbey was founded in 1200 by William Marshall, the 1st Earl of Pembroke. Marshal had set sail for Ireland on his first visit as Lord of Leinster and was threatened to be shipwrecked during a bad storm. He vowed to found an abbey wherever he could safely land and on reaching Bannow Bay he redeemed his vow and bequeathed 9000 acres of land for its foundation. It was colonized by monks from Tintern Abbey in Wales (hence the name) which Marshal was also a patron of and it quickly became one of the richest Cistercian abbeys in Ireland. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Abbey and its grounds were granted to Sir James Croft, and then to Anthony Colclough, a soldier of Henry VIII whose descendants became the Colclough Baronets. The final member of the Colclough family to reside here was Lucey Marie Biddulph Colclough who donated the abbey to the nation. It is now under state control and is open to the public as a visitor attraction.

Thanks to Sarah Woodbury for the informative video on Tintern Abbey