Founded in 1131, no later than 1132, Basingwerk Abbey began life as a Savigniac House, before the order merged with the Cistercians in 1147. It began life as part of the military complex at nearby Hen Blas, and had probably changed hands from the Anglo-Normans that originally founded the Abbey, to Owain Gwynedd who took back much of Tegeingl during his reign. One imagines the brothers thankfully transferring to the site at Greenfield in 1157, the year of the Battle of Coleshill in which Hen Blas had been fortified by Gwynedd.
Basingwerk Abbey continued to exist in a sort of state of tense angst for much of the next one hundred and fifty years, until the Welsh Wars of 1282-83, which saw the Edwardian conquest effectively end the Aberffraw line and settle Basingwerk into a calm of sorts.
The abbots of Basingwerk could be a rum lot, but were known as supporters of literature and were often given high praise by Welsh bards, such as Tudor Aled. Still, this did little to prevent the inevitable and Basingwerk was closed in 1537 as part of Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Today, the ruins speak of a past long gone...
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