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You may find this relevant information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit

Yorkshire is a wide, open county, so vast that it covers most of the North of England. Though its southern regions are now heavily urbanized, the north retains the raw rural landscapes that once made monks swam here like bees to the honey-pot. There is something magnetic about the high moors and sweeping dales which draws one close to mother nature and, for a monk no doubt, to his God.

Monastic institutions first established themselves in the county, way back in the days of Saxon Northumbria. The area was famous for its holy men and women and the monasteries that gathered around them: St. Hilda in Whitby, St. Wilfred in Ripon, St. Chad in Lastingham. However, Viking devastation quickly brought the Golden Age of Northumbrian Christianity to an end and the ancient abbey churches lay in ruins for several centuries.

Following the Norman Conquest (1066), however, a new breed of monks began to arrive in the North. A multitude of continental monastic orders moved in, all with different ideas about how to best serve God. The Northern Mission got off to a late start, so the widespread Benedictine monks were never a great force. However, there was plenty of available land and generous lords eager to show their piety by donating it to a monastic foundation. The Augustinian 'black' canons were influential, but it was the strict Cistercians who really came into their own in the county, making Rievaulx the focus of their order in England.

For almost 470 years, the monasteries dominated Yorkshire life. The monks were neighbours to everyone. Yet, suddenly, they were gone: swept away by the greed of 'Bluff King Hal' in the 1530s. The Dissolution of the Monasteries reduced most of the great Yorkshire Abbeys and Priories to mere stone quarries for the local population. Yet, still, the ruins over half of the eighty-three monastic houses in the county remain. Some of the best are in the Dales and the Moors. They stand proud and majestic in their dramatic locations.

Jervaulx Abbey

The crumbling walls of this ancient Cistercian monastery, heavily clad in their diverse vegetation, present one of the most romantic images of a former splendour and seclusion enjoyed by the white monks. Set humbly against a backdrop of parkland, this privately-owned ruin is an enchanting and enlightening reminder of the simplicity of life, the spiritual devotion, and the harsh conditions endured by the strict order of Cistercians.

Building on this site began in the mid-12th century and much of what remains today has miraculously survived from this period. Jervaulx suffered more heavily than other Yorkshire abbeys at the Dissolution because the last abbot was involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace. After a campaign of savage and thorough destruction, completely obliterating the abbey church, it is incredible to see such substantial sections of the monks' dorter and the infirmary still standing.

Although the ground plan of the church can be identified, there are only fragments of the original walls visible along the entire 270 ft, and a few column bases springing up from the undergrowth. However, the real beauty of the church now takes the form of a profusion of wild flowers decorating the ancient stones, and providing a colourful carpet across the nave. In total, there are believed to be some 200 different species growing amongst the ruins.