Saturday 5th – Sunday 6th September

Follow William Gilpin’s picturesque tour of the Lower Wye Valley, along the border of England and South Wales, Georgian Group members will explore how eighteenth-century travellers experienced this dramatic landscape.

Beginning at Chepstow Castle at 9:30-10am, we will continue to Piercefield Park, where the ruined Georgian country house and designed walks frame celebrated views over the Wye Valley. We will lunch at Wyndcliffe Court, a privately-owned Arts & Crafts house built in 1922 high above the River Wye by Eric Francis and Henry Avray Tipping, before touring Tintern Abbey, one of the most admired picturesque ruins in Britain. The day will end in Monmouth. Along the way we will consider Gilpin’s ideas of the ‘picturesque’ in poetry, painting, and landscape design, and the popularity of Wye tourism in the Georgian period.

Members may wish extend the trip by staying in Chepstow on the night of Friday 4th and in Monmouth on the night of Saturday 5th: A visit to the private Clytha House (usually private) has been arranged for the morning of Sunday 6 September. (Attendees to secure their own accommodation).

£55 per person – includes a lunch at Wyndcliffe Court and entry to Tintern Abbey.

Organisers: Frederick Hervey-Bathurst (YG Chair) & Dr. Eleanor Stephenson (Research Curator at National Museum, Cardiff)

The event is organised by the Young Georgians but is open to members of all ages.