Flanking the Brecon Beacons National Park, the lively market town of ABERGAVENNY (Y Fenni), seven miles southeast of Crickhowell, makes one of the best bases for an extended stay. There's not a whole lot to do, but there's a fine range of places to eat, drink and sleep, and the town is a magnet to walkers bound for the local mountains: Sugar Loaf and the legend-infused Holy Mountain (Skirrid Fawr). Stretching north from town, the Vale of Ewyas runs along the foot of the Black Mountains, where the astounding churches at Partrishow and Cwmyoy are lost in rural isolation. Abergavenny also makes a good base for visiting Monmouthshire's "Three Castles", set in the pastoral border country to the east.

 

Although only a couple of miles and a few hills away from the iron and coal towns of the Valleys, Abergavenny grew on the basis of its weaving and tanning trades, giving it an entirely different feel. These industries prospered alongside a flourishing market, which is still the focal point for a wide area, drawing many people up from the Valleys every Tuesday. In World War II, Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, was kept in the town's mental asylum as a prisoner, after his plane crash-landed in Scotland in 1941. He was allowed a weekly walk in the nearby hills, growing, it is said, to love the Welsh countryside.

From the train station, Monmouth Road rises gently, eventually becoming High Street, off which you'll find the fragmented remains of the medieval castle , whose ugly Victorian keep houses the town museum (March-Oct Mon-Sat 11am-1pm & 2-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; Nov-Feb Mon-Sat 11am-1pm & 2-4pm; £1), which displays ephemera from the town's history and a reconstruction of Basil Jones' grocery shop, once on Main Street. After the death of Jones' son in 1989, the contents of the shop were transported to the museum lock, stock and biscuit barrel. Some goods are of recent origin, but much dates from the 1930s and 1940s - some even from the nineteenth century. Abergavenny's parish church of St Mary , on Monk Street, contains some superb tombs that span the entire medieval period. There are effigies of members of the notorious de Braose family, along with the tomb and figure of Sir William ap Thomas, founder of Raglan Castle. Look out for the Jesse Tree , a recumbent, twice-life-size statue of King David's father which would once have formed part of an altarpiece tracing the family lineage from Jesse to Jesus.