Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gentle Jane
( 01981-241655;
www.gentlejane.com
; s/d £65/90)
At the heart of a tiny village this genteel
tearoom and B&B offers three classy rooms with creamy marble bathrooms and contem-
porary furnishings. One has an ancient staircase leading to its en suite bathroom.
B&B
££
TOP OF CHAPTER
Abergavenny (Y-Fenni)
POP 10,000
Bustling, workaday Abergavenny is set amid shapely, tree-fringed hills in the northwest
corner of Monmouthshire, on the eastern edge of Brecon Beacons National Park. While
not the most immediately attractive town, it's well worth getting under its skin.
Abergavenny was traditionally best known as a place for outdoor pursuits (it makes a
fine base for walks, cycling and para-gliding in the surrounding hills), but it's as the capit-
al of a burgeoning food scene that the town has really come into its own. Its position at the
heart of Wales' new cuisine, which celebrates the best in fresh, local and organic produce,
is generating international interest in both its food festival and its acclaimed eateries, the
best of which are actually just out of town in the surrounding countryside.
Its ancient name, Y-Fenni (uh-
ven
-ni; Welsh for 'place of the smiths'), was given to a
stream that empties into the River Usk here, and later anglicised to Gavenny (Aber-
gavenny means 'mouth of the Gavenny'). The Romans established Gobannium Fort here,
exactly a day's march from their garrison at Caerleon, which they maintained from AD 57
to 400. In around 1100 a marcher lord, Hamelin de Ballon, built the castle and the town's
regional importance grew.
