Yorkshire, England - Fountains Abbey 

return to Yorkshire trip index

return to mdimage site index

Sunday started out sunny & a little frosty. I took my first coffee and walked north, following a gravel driveway to the end, finding a couple of farms and an old but occupied house.     

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.

cottage property

Nellie enjoyed some apple slices

the owner lives to the left of the two rental cottages

Fountains Abbey near Rippon, 40 minutes (driving) west from of Thirsk, is the largest Abbey ruin in England.    

In 1132, thirteen Cistercian monks rebelled against an increasing trend towards luxury in food & clothing at St. Mary's Abbey in York, stating that they felt they were not following the original precepts of the Rule of St. Benedict strictly enough. 

Because these break-away monks used Benedictine doctrine as the basis for their complaints, they were given protection by the Archbishop of York. 

Shortly thereafter, Robert De Roos, Lord of nearby Helmsley Castle, who had vast land holdings, gave the Cistercians 6,000 acres on the River Skell, near the small Market Town of Ripon. The Abbey was completed in 1160, using sandstone which was quarried on the property.  

Ruins like this make me admire the skills that you can see in he structures and it shows that the Cistercian Order included craftsmen (stone-workers and stone placers) and surveyors or engineers, who could build an Abbey like this. 

	the Abbey Church		Cellarium, or  storage cellar		river Skell runs through it		& behind it
		Refectory, or  dining room		contemplation continues...		former rooms
	the tour group & guide		Presbytery		visitors provide perspective
		floor tiles		stairway to the past

Studley Royal Garden

In 1767 William Aislabie, MP for the town of Ripon, inherited Studley Manor & garden from his father, and then vastly improved it, purchasing the adjacent Abbey ruin property, in the process creating a beautiful and romantic garden with 'old world' atmosphere.  (MP - Member of Parliament.)

Studley Royal Garden is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Oddly enough this does not include the old Abbey ruins.

The Docent said that for Wm. Aislabie, the Garden and Abbey together were "a demonstration of great personal wealth."    

	downstream view		classical elements like the Temple of Piety (see note below)		Drum Dam		tour guide group in Studley Royal Garden
		an informative & entertaining Docent		Jackdaw (crow)
	California redwood, planted in the 1800s		our last look at the Abbey

note - our impious guide poked fun at the statuary, saying you could buy mass-produced antiquaries like this statue of Mercury, off-the-shelf, because everyone with property in the 1700s & 1800s had to have one.   

Being our first day out touring in a car, I took the wrong exit at two different traffic circles. At the more important one, I put us on the freeway, heading north, away from our intended destination. In ten minutes we were heading south again, no harm done and I guess I was refreshing UK driving skills from the fall 2013 trip.  I had a lot more confidence after a few days.   

But at least twice in Thirsk during our two-week stay, I nonchalantly left a gas station or grocery store, driving in the wrong lane, which my wife caught immediately. She was a bit anxious & thus an observant co-pilot, the best kind.    

go to next page - week one, part three - York

return to Yorkshire trip index

return to mdimage site index