The Tintern Abbey is a monastic ruin in Wales. Although it has been added to since then, the oldest parts of the abbey date back to the 12th century. As it appears now, the dating of the abbey being built is between 1269 and 1301. It is notably impressive today for being almost complete, missing only the roof, windows, and internal divisions. The church was very much affected by the Black Death in 1348 due to people not wanting to come near enough to keep up the work on it. Further, the monastic life was brought to an end in the 1500s by the ruling of King Henry VIII when he enacted the Dissolution of the Monastaries policy to gain complete control over the church.
By the time William Wordsworth wrote "Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" in the late 1700s, the abbey was available to tour. Wordsworth's inclusion of the abbey itself may refer to the fascination Romanticists find in the mix of man-made ruins in nature, since his poem focuses far more on the surrounding environment than the abbey itself.