An abbey in a valley
There are more ruined abbeys here than anywhere in England, and there is a reason.
By Ruth Ardsley · 6 min read
The Cistercians wanted isolation and Yorkshire had a great deal of it going spare. They built in valleys, beside water, as far from anybody as they could reasonably get, and then the dissolution left the results standing open to the weather for five hundred years.
What survives is better than anything they could have designed. Roofless naves with grass floors and arcades running off into trees.
Going
Early, and ideally in poor weather. These places were built for silence and they get it back on a wet Tuesday in March. In August the good ones have a car park problem.
What to look at
The scale, mostly. Standing in the middle of a nave that has no roof is the only way to understand how big these buildings were, and photographs never manage it.
Take something waterproof to sit on. The grass is always wet and you will want to sit for longer than you expect.