Tintern Abbey and Duncannon Fort: The Hook Peninsula

William Marshal was caught in a storm crossing to Ireland and vowed that if he lived he would found an abbey wherever he landed. He lived, and around 1200 he founded Tintern on this peninsula — Tintern de Voto, Tintern of the Vow. Four centuries later Elizabeth I answered a different threat here, throwing up the star-shaped fort at Duncannon in 1587–88 against the Spanish Armada. Out at the tip stands Loftus Hall, built over a medieval hall and sold to visitors as the most haunted house in Ireland, and Hook Lighthouse, one of the oldest working lighthouses anywhere.