North Yorkshire Abbeys

On Sunday morning we visited a couple of abbeys.


We live a few miles from the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. When I say "the moors", a lot of people imagine areas they have seen in films, such as Wuthering Heights or Hound of the Baskervilles. In the North Yorks Moors there are areas like that but most of it is farmland or wooded, with steep sided valleys, rather like green oases. During the 12th - 15th centuries, these valleys were remote and easily cut off from towns and cities during winter. They were ideal for the religious orders of monks and a number of abbeys were built. When King Henry VIII broke from the Catholic church and established the Church of England, the abbeys were "dissolved", the monks and lay brothers were thrown out, the abbeys and all their lands were sold. The abbeys were then stripped of their lead and other metals and timbers and the stone used for other buildings. This has left a number of ruins; today these ruins are very carefully managed and maintained by a HM Government agency, English Heritage and they are a major attraction for tourists and families.

We were en route to Rievaulx Abbey but we passed another abbey, Bylands Abbey, that was deserted so we stopped to have a look around. Also, Bylands Abbey is undergoing some restoration works and so it is free entry at the moment.

After thirty minutes, we drove on another 10miles to Rievaulx Abbey (pronounced Reevoh). This is more into the Moors which probably saved it from a lot of the stone from being taken away.

A new Visitors' Centre has been built

The main buildings

The Abbey church

Inside, looking from the altar down the nave

The very large cloister, with the wooded valley side behind.

Reconstructed bit of the cloister

The tannery

The refectory

On site is a small museum of found objects, this is thought to be Jesus

A winged devil

This shows grain being delivered by packhorse to the on-site windmill

We finished in time for lunch on the terrace of the new cafe. Rievaulx is very popular at weekends with families. We also heard several different European languages being spoken. After lunch we retreated to our home, around 17 miles, to escape the sun for a couple of hours.