Thursday 1st August 2013

While the children slept, and Leigh knitted, Daddy drove from Cardiff to Monmouthshire (passing briefly out of Wales and then back in again) to take everyone to Tintern.

Tintern, famed for its Abbey, is a delightful small town, but Daddy wasn’t here to see the wonderful ruin but to take everyone to the Old Railway Station to sample its delights.

And delightful it was. The weather helped by being glorious. The station has a multitude of attractions aimed at young children, and a vast number of walks aimed at those with more energy. it needs a few brave souls and a picnic to really enrich it.

From Mark’s TripAdvisor:

Tintern Old Railway Station is one of those special places where time just floats away. There isn’t a great number of attractions, they don’t have cartwheeling bears, what they do have is bucket loads of charm.

The station has some restored buildings and railways carriages that serve as a shop. A model railway reconstruction, a small gauge railway and a small park and several forest walks.

Let’s deal with them:

The station buildings: It is clear that a great deal of effort and love has gone into preserving them and making them useful. All of them are functional including the signal box.

The shop: Serves a wide variety of gifts but also has seats and games/interactive displays for children that are *free* – yes you read that clearly. (you pay for parking but it is cheap)

Model railway: a thing of love and beauty and a knowledgeable friendly attendant.

Small gauge railway: A short ride on an electric/diesel motor, they really need a little steam engine – come on guys 😉

Parks: Great for the small ones with plenty of things to climb, swing or slide down.

Walks: the true jewel in the crown. The railway sits in the Wye valley and is on the Wye Valley walk, it is on the border of Gloucestershire and Monmouth and is just upstream from Tintern Abbey. It is also surrounded by forest, rolling river valley and meadows. This is a magical place for a short, or long, walk. You can easily take a picnic and waste a day in a field with the insects buzzing contentedly about you.

Food: Didn’t sample enough of it, but the cakes we had were tasty.

A thing to note is that each of these things is so enthusiastically done that it feels even more special. Parking is cheap (£1 for 3 hours or £3 for the day) and the staff all very welcoming.

Another great point is that this place survives from volunteer efforts which is truly stunning.

A real jewel and worthy of a nice day out.