Lose yourself in the passages, staircases and towers of Fountains Abbey, the largest monastic ruins in the country, and marvel at a unique relic of ancient craftsmanship.
Whet your appetite with these five highlights from the Abbey:
Location, location, location
© NTPL / Andrew Butler
Fountains Abbey is a truly breathtaking place to visit. Set in the naturally beautiful Skell valley, it's flanked by two vast expanses of lawn with awe-inspiring cliff faces to either side. The river Skell runs through the valley and under the Abbey, which is in itself a masterpiece of 12th-century building ingenuity.
How times have changed since Thurstan, Archbishop of York, described the site as 'more fit for wild beasts than men to inhabit' when he gave it in 1132 to 13 monks to found an abbey following the austere Benedictine order.
The cellarium
© National Trust
Life for the monks at Fountains Abbey came to an abrupt end with Henry VIII’s brutal Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, but amazingly the cellarium's incredible vaulted ceiling escaped intact. Before the Dissolution, this was where the lay brothers - the Abbey's workforce - ate, slept and socialised.
Today the cellarium's only inhabitants are bats. Around eight species live in the ceiling nooks, including Pipistrelle, Noctule and Daubenton’s bats. The bats only come out after dusk to hunt around the Abbey and Water Garden, each devouring thousands of insects before sunrise.
The cloister
© National Trust
Eight hundred years ago, at a time when the Abbey was one of the richest in England, you'd have found 30 or so monks meditating and exercising in the cloister. This was the Abbey's heart and from here you can discover many of its rooms.
Make sure you visit the warming room, where a fire was always kept roaring in the huge fireplace, and the newly opened muniments room above. The monks' documents were stored here, kept dry by the warmth from below. And if you pass the stairs that once led to the dormitory, spare a thought for the monks who had to sleep in coarse woollen habits.
Little white monks
© National Trust
As you stroll around the Abbey ruins you may be lucky enough to spot a group of young novice monks dressed in the traditional white robes of the Cistercian order.
These aren't really the latest batch of apprentices, but are usually school groups here to experience ‘A Day in the Life of a Monk’. This one-hour bookable tour is also open to families during school holidays.
Discover the Abbey's secrets
© Kippa Matthews
If you're bursting to know how the monks' latrines worked or what punishments they received for bad behaviour, one of the best ways to unlock the secrets of the Abbey is to join a free guided tour.
In a lively and passionate hour or so of story telling, you'll learn from our expert guides how the Abbey was built, discover its beautiful architecture and delve into the mysterious world of medieval monks.
And the Abbey becomes a treasure trove for hide-and-seek and trail clues during the school holidays. Free children’s trails around the Abbey on a different theme each holiday will keep kids amused for hours.
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