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Hailes Abbey (April-Sept daily 10am-6pm; Oct daily 10am-5pm; Nov-March Sat & Sun 10am-4pm; GBP2.60), a two-mile stroll northeast of Winchcombe, was once one of England's great Cistercian monasteries. Pilgrims came here from all over the country to pray before the abbey's phial of Christ's blood, a relic shown to be a fake at the time of the Dissolution, when the thirteenth-century monastery was demolished. Not much of the original complex remains beyond the foundations, but some cloister arches survive, worn by wind and rain. The ruin is undramatic, but Hailes is still worth visiting for the attached museum, where you can get a close-up look at thirteenth-century bosses, for the tranquillity of the spot and for the nearby church , which is older than the abbey and contains beautiful wall paintings dating from around 1300. The cartoon-like hunting scene was probably a warning to Sabbath-breakers.
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