A Pictorial Tour of the Wye Valley Quiz

Answer: Royal Hotel

Ross lays claim to being the home of tourism, since trips along the Wye began there in the late eighteenth century as an alternative to the fashionable grand tours of the continent of Europe, which had been put on hold during the Napoleonic Wars. The Wye Tour was popularised by William Gilpin, who wrote about his experiences and extolled the natural beauty of the area. Ross became the starting point of the Wye Valley tours and the Royal Hotel was the place to stay. Coming out of its main door and looking to the left gives a view across the river, and there are steps leading down to the banks through the Thomas Blake Memorial Gardens, although these would not have been around in the early days of the tours.

I've never stayed in the Royal, since I lived in the town anyway, but I have had the occasional lunch or coffee there - usually when someone else was paying.

Answer: Sandstone

It would be tempting to think that the name of Ross means 'red' to reflect the sandstone on which the town is built, but it actually derives from the Celtic word for a promontory. This reflects the hilly nature of the town. Ross was given the right to hold markets as long ago as the twelfth century, and the Market Hall you can see dates from the middle of the seventeenth century.

The upstairs room used to be the library when I first lived there, but that has relocated to a new building and has been replaced by a Heritage Centre. Markets are still held twice weekly, on Thursdays and Saturdays, with stalls in the open area under the building and on the apron in front of the steps you can see.

Answer: Goodrich

Taking a minor road from Ross will mean we follow the course of the Wye and cross the river at Kerne Bridge, giving us a magnificent view of the castle. It is constructed from sandstone (you must be able to recognise this by now) and takes its name from Godric of Mappestone, who built the original castle on the site in the eleventh century. It was rebuilt in stone in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but was badly damaged in 1646 during the Civil War. A mortar gun, called 'Roaring Meg', was the main culprit. The castle is now owned by English Heritage.

Of all the places in the quiz, this is the one I know best as it was my daughter's choice for a birthday treat for about ten consecutive years, followed by a trip to Symonds Yat.

Of the other options, Trelleck and Raglan are both in Monmouthshire and Warwick is in the Midlands.

Answer: Symonds Yat Rock

We're still just in Herefordshire. The village of Symonds Yat (the 'yat' part means 'gate') is split into two parts, imaginatively called 'West' and 'East'. You can cross via a footbridge or by a ferry, which is hand operated by pulling on a rope across the river. By car, you have to make a detour. Symonds Yat Rock gives an aerial view of the river, which makes a horseshoe bend below the site - I couldn't find a photo which showed this. As well as the view, in the spring peregrine falcons can be seen nesting on the cliffs to the right of the rock.

This was the spot that most of my visitors wanted to see. The climb mentioned in the question is easy enough - there is a convenient car park and a stroll through woods, with only the last part being a bit of a scramble.

Answer: Forest of Dean

The River Wye forms one of the borders of the Forest of Dean, which lies mostly in Gloucestershire. The forest has a long history - there is evidence that people lived here in the Mesolithic era and the Romans used it for minerals, including iron ore, during their occupation of Britain. The area has a definite cultural identity, with people who live in the towns being called 'Foresters', even if they work in offices or factories. Among the tourist attractions in the forest are Puzzlewood, Clearwell Caves and a sculpture trail.

Harry Potter took refuge in the Forest of Dean in the final book of the series, 'The Deathly Hallows'. The photo shows bluebells in full bloom, as they will be at the time this quiz was created, in April.

Answer: Monmouth

We're now in Wales, although Monmouth was, for centuries, treated as being in England. In 1972, the Local Government Act made it, and the county, officially part of Wales. Monmouth Castle, where Henry V was born in 1387, was destroyed in the Civil War and little remains of it. The main square in Monmouth is named Agincourt Square in Henry's honour, from one of his most famous battles, and the Shire Hall has a sculpture of the king above its entrance.

The picture shows the bridge over the River Monnow, and is an important monument - the only fortified gate tower still in existence in the UK. All other examples were demolished for road widening, but cars still drove across this bridge until as recently as 2004, when a new bridge opened and this one was pedestrianised. I drove through, very carefully, on numerous occasions.

Answer: Tintern

Tintern is a Cistercian abbey, dating from 1131. It is situated on the banks of the Wye, on the Welsh side - the other side is England. The abbey buildings that remain date from the thirteenth century. As a Roman Catholic abbey, Tintern (and many others) fell foul of Henry VIII and his split from the Catholic church. The abbeys, monasteries and other religious buildings were ordered to close, with their assets being seized by the monarch and used to fund the wars he was engaged in. Tourism can be seen as having saved the ruins, as the visitors provided income and made it viable to salvage what remained.

Tintern is my favourite spot on the tour, too. Even just glancing at it while driving past raises the spirits. As mentioned in the question, I'm far from alone. Wordsworth wrote 'Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey' in 1798 and many other poets have used it for inspiration. Novels have been written using it as part of the plot, and the paintings of it are too numerous to mention.

Answer: Prestatyn

The dyke - an earthwork of raised ground flanked by a ditch on the Welsh side - is named for Offa, a king of Mercia. The original height has been estimated as being as much as eight feet (2.4 metres) high and with a width of a maximum of 65 feet (20 metres). The dyke marks the boundary between Wales and England and is popularly believed to have been built to keep the Welsh out (not that it worked - I can get away with saying that because I have a Welsh father). The long distance footpath runs close to the border although only some parts of the original dyke are still visible.

I'd love to tell you that I've walked from Sedbury to Prestatyn, but I'd be lying. It's nearly 180 miles (290 km) long - I might have managed 100 yards here or there, in Sedbury and further north near Hay-on-Wye.

Answer: William I (Normans)

As you can see, the castle is located right by the river. The Normans set about securing their new kingdom after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and work on the original castle at Chepstow began in 1067. It was just one of a chain of castles built in the Welsh Marches, the area of the border between Wales and England. Chepstow was a strategic site, since the river gave easy access to major settlements like Gloucester and Hereford. The castle was another victim of the Civil War, and another to gain from the rise of tourism. A guide book was first published in 1793, and visits to the castle are just as popular in the twenty-first century.

Apart from the castle, Chepstow also has its Town Gate - but that could be called modern by comparison, dating from the thirteenth century and rebuilt in the sixteenth. For those of a more sporting mind set, Chepstow is home to a racecourse for both jumping and flat horse racing.

Edward I was well known for having castles built in Wales, but in the northern parts. Vespasian was stationed at Caerleon, not far from Chepstow, during the Roman occupation, but they built forts.

Answer: Severn

Before the bridge was opened, in 1966, to travel from Bristol to Chepstow meant a journey of several miles (about 60, or 100 km) via Gloucester. There was a ferry but it took only a few cars at a time - no HGVs - and was subject to the tides. The opening of the bridge made a big difference in both time and congestion, and a second bridge was built in 1996.

My daughter was at university in Exeter, so I drove across this bridge on numerous occasions. I could have gone via Gloucester from Ross, but the pleasure of driving along the Wye Valley meant that I often chose the longer (in time) route.