The Llangollen Eisteddfod

It's music festival time in Europe. The music comes to suite all tastes from Opera to Popera and a variety of venues. Take your pick from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde sung beneath the midnight sun in Finland or his Ring cycle performed behind the closed doors of a cramped Theatre in Bavarian Bayreuth. You can hear Tchaikovsky in the heat of a sunbaked courtyard of prelate's palace in the South of France, see Verdi's Aida and parade of elephants in the ancient Roman amphitheatre of Romeo and Juliet's Verona, hear Puccini on a floating stage in Lake Constance, or massed voices in choral harmony in the Welsh valleys.

Britain sees a number of music festivals in July, many of which take place in some corner of a soggy field and require a crash course in camping survival techniques coupled with an optimistic faith in the British weather. The Llangollen Eisteddford in Wales however is a truly international event that has attracted stars like Placido Domingo and Pavarotti during its 56 years. It is also, mercifully, a non camping event and there are a number of attractive and comfortable hotels to welcome you in and around Llangollen.

Llangollen has much more to offer the visitor than musical harmony on a July evening. The town spans the River Dee and has a history stretching back to the 7th Century and the arrival in the valley of Saint Collen, a Preacherman of the ancient Celtic Church. He built his cell here and in 1201, some six centuries later, Madog ap Gruffudd, Prince of Powys founded a Cistercian abbey nearby. Like the nearby castle Dinas Bran overlooking Llangollen valley, it stands now in ruins. But is it a magnificent example of Britain's great architectural heritage and should be seen.

The abbey of Valle Crucis and its holy residents were victims of the iconaclism of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. The Abbot was killed, the monks dispersed and the abbey looted and wrecked. Its Welsh remoteness did however save it from the depredations of builders seeking easy pickings over succeeding centuries. Much still remains to inspire by its lonely beauty, including the superb west front with its richly carved doorway and the magnifient rib vaulted Chapter House; mute and bare reminders of the glories of medieval ecclesiastical gothic architecture lost to us thanks to the turbulent events of the Henry's reign.

Castle Dinas Bran, aptly translated as "Crow City", has been less fortunate, suffering from its lofty exposed position. If however you can summon up the energy to climb up to the gaunt wind-battered stumps of the castle walls, your exertions will be rewarded by an unrivalled view of the spectacular Welsh countryside beneath you.

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