With the borders of England to the east and the River Severn estuary to the south, Wales is at its most green and giving in the borderlands of Monmouthshire, where the River Wye ribbons through ancient woodlands and past ruined abbeys beloved of Romantic writers, poets and painters.
On the fringes of the remote Black Mountains, castles, priories and Iron Age hillforts nod to a rich past, while hiking trails thread up to wind-rippled, bracken-cloaked moors.
