"...At the Abbey we are engaged in many works designed to glorify the name of God, but such are costly and our funds are slim. If only some lord, being both wealthy and pious, and seeking to gain the favour of God with his generosity, might act as our patron! Know you of any such, my lord...?"
Welcome to the abbey of St. Gurnard, a saint greatly venerated in C11th England but having fallen somewhat into obscurity in the centuries since. The abbey which housed his relics was once a great centre of pilgrimage, but this popularity, and rumours of its consequent riches, ensured it became a target for raiders of many persuasions – jealous Anglo-Saxon lords, pagan Northmen, untrustworthy Irish and sly Welsh – not to mention the odious Scotch.
The exact location of the abbey, prey to attacks from over the Irish and the North seas both, the mountains of Cymru and the heathlands of Alba, is a subject which vexes historians and archaeologists of the present day, and many candidates have been proposed in the academic literature without firm conclusion. Perhaps, like Camelot, it more properly belongs to the world of legend....
Welcome to the abbey of St. Gurnard, a saint greatly venerated in C11th England but having fallen somewhat into obscurity in the centuries since. The abbey which housed his relics was once a great centre of pilgrimage, but this popularity, and rumours of its consequent riches, ensured it became a target for raiders of many persuasions – jealous Anglo-Saxon lords, pagan Northmen, untrustworthy Irish and sly Welsh – not to mention the odious Scotch.
The exact location of the abbey, prey to attacks from over the Irish and the North seas both, the mountains of Cymru and the heathlands of Alba, is a subject which vexes historians and archaeologists of the present day, and many candidates have been proposed in the academic literature without firm conclusion. Perhaps, like Camelot, it more properly belongs to the world of legend....
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