WALES’ 1000 BEST HERITAGE SITES October 2010

224pp hardback illustrated Amberley

Amazon description: ‘A comprehensive and authoritative gazetteer of Wales's 1000 best heritage sites. Fabulously illustrated with over 100 colour photographs. Includes castles, churches, chapels, houses, archaeological sites, gardens, battlefields, libraries, historic industrial sites and landscapes. From today's most prolific writer upon the heritage of Wales, we have his selection of the places that symbolise the history and culture of the nation. From the oldest mineral mines in Europe, prehistoric megaliths, Iron Age hill forts, through the Roman occupation, sixth-century holy wells to the greatest density of medieval castle-building in the world, we arrive at today's industrial heritage. Wales has a history unknown to the rest of the world, for instance the longest unbroken period of Christianity in Europe; a thousand saints from the so-called 'Dark Ages' of the fifth to seventh centuries whose names are still imprinted on the landscape; the highest density of castles and Iron Age hill forts in the world; the greatest density of places of worship in the world; and it was the veritable cradle of the global Industrial Revolution. The 1000 best sites to understand Welsh history and culture have been chosen for this book from Elizabethan gardens, the oldest monastery in the British Isles to a human treadmill.’

Gwales Review (courtesy of Books Council of Wales)

‘It is a brave and ambitious project to try to list the most important heritage sites of a nation, and even braver to write accounts of them. Terry Breverton has grasped this challenge with characteristic gusto and élan. He will please most of the people most of the time with his choice of sites, although, as a naturalist, I’d like to have seen more coverage of Wales's unique natural history, such as the internationally important raised bogs at Tregaron and Borth and some of the myriad geological gems that are favoured by many a geography textbook. But it is fair enough that the author has played to his strengths, and a credit to the book that you will find an entry for most of your favourites...  Breverton’s book is a useful pointer to the iconic spots where the history of Wales has been made, and to those places and ideas that are close to the hearts of Welsh men and women. There is no doubting the deep love of his country that infuses every entry in this fascinating and comprehensive work.’ Richard Hartnup