Rievaulx Abbey

It was Lauren's birthday in February, and to mark the occasion we decided to go away to a place of her choosing. 

Now she's always wanted to go to Whitby, as a fan of Dracula and Bram Stoker, she wanted to witness the inspiration herself, so we made it happen. 

It was our first proper little holiday together and it was nice to mark her 27th with a bunch of memories we'll cherish. Yogi enjoyed it too, although it did take 2 days of heavy sleeping in order to recover from his good time once we came home.

Now as you may have noticed from our blog, we are very interested in history, ghosts, and general fun experiences and use this as a basis for our adventures. Due to this, we made a list of several stops we wanted to make while in that neck of the woods which allowed us to fit in as much as possible within these aspects.

So without any further introduction, our first stop was Rievaulx Abbey!

Rievaulx Abbey (after much struggling we found out this was pronounced ree-voh) is a Cistercian Abbey and was actually the first monastery of this order in the North of England. The Abbey was founded by 12 Monks from Clairveux Abbey in France in 1132 and according to the ground plan from English Heritage construction continued in places right up until the 16th century. The Abbey was seized by the big bully, King Henry VIII in 1538 during his disbanding of the monasteries ruling and stripped of any valuables. The land was then gifted to Thomas Manners (1st Earl of Rutland), one of King Henry's advisors until it landed in the lap of the Duncombe family.  

When we arrived it had just ceased raining, the air was still a little damp, and everything was muddy but the sun was just starting to peak through. We approached the Abbey via the narrowest country lane we had yet encountered and even from far away the ruins loomed. 

We had done zero research of this landmark prior to our visit, we'd only circled it as a stop along the way hoping that the ruins would speak for themselves. Speak they did, dear reader, as these gothic crumbled walls told us so much more than our tainted expectations could if we had looked it up beforehand. 

You enter this 'attraction' through the giftshop/cafe. The volunteers are bubbly and well knowledged and even offered Yogi a treat and guided us to the nearest doggy watering bowl. We were off to a good start. Once we'd exited the giftshop we stood at the bottom of the small incline and looked in awe at the sight before us (aside from Yogi, he looked with interest at the grass in front of him in order to heavily take in the scent). Up until this point we had only experienced the ruins of Hailes Abbey together, and in comparison Hailes was but a handful of stones and a couple of arches. Rievaulx was far grander, although just a skeleton of its former self, it was vaguely intact! So we climbed the little incline, admittedly slowly due to Lauren's injury (just before Christmas she tore the ligament in her ankle and has a possible fracture which does not want to heal quickly), with excitement within us. 

From the path we could see the ruins in their entirety. Arches from the presbytery, refectory and a few walls relating to other quarters. Then there were the mere foundations left in the ground, ghostly outlines to rooms which were there before. Excuse the drama, but we find history poetic and spooky and so it needs to be written with a certain flare...

We met the small stream which was a diverted source for water here first. Those Monks were savvy and did this to allow for a handy natural water source to meet their needs. This stream was built around, and the walls still stand at least half way into their second storey. The windows which remain are all different shapes and sizes in this section and the stones are different leading us to believe this may have been an extension to the abbey. This part is one of the more ruinous sections as the Infirmary and Abbotts House walls are almost to the ground. We were right however, according to the English Heritage's ground plan, this part was added to the pre-standing building and was one of the last builds to take place as late as the 15/16th century. This was attached to 12th century stonework it seems in order to improve the Monk's lives here. According to the plan these newer builds may have been repairs or simply improvements but we know that these sections became the abbots house, infirmary, kitchens and further down the incline the fulling mill. Based on the research we have since conducted, the improvement to Cistercian ways came from the abandonment of the stricter observance of The Rule of St Benedict in the 15th century, from then on they could eat meat and have a slightly more luxurious space to call their own, hence the further construction. 

Now as we walked up past the remains of these rooms we neared what is personally our favourite part and the section which seemed most intact. This was the grand arches which had lured us in and what turned out to be the Presbytery. Upon later research we found that the Presbytery actually housed some long buried Monks and Barons. Laid to rest were Aelred of Rieveulx (a Cistercian Monk), Thomas De Ros (4th Baron De Ros), and John De Ros (5th Baron De Ros). I dont know why we didn't expect this, but the fact that we were walking on graves was not well advertised. We supposed that this was for good reason, but equally this allowed for inadvertent disrespect for the dead. 

You could simply tell that this part of the Abbey was ethereal compared to the surrounding ruins even if we didnt know that it contained graves. From the moment we stepped into the Presbytery we knew it was the most special part of this place. Not only were the carved stone arches well preserved, but the discolouration and grandness of them just screamed important. It was obvious that back when the skeleton of these pillars were fleshed out that this was the holy section. Prayers, choirs, burials, ceremonies, shrines, sanctuary were all housed here. This was where the magic happened and the bare bones of these arches stood as a reminder of this.

Although overgrown and mossy, the tall open arches which loomed over us still beckoned their importance. This was the only piece of architecture which actually took our breath away. I'm struggling to describe the magnitude of this piece of history in all honesty, but the overall feelings we had were awe, respect, and an underlining current of fear. 

Let me explain, when we entered this remnant we were hit with silence. You couldnt hear the laughter from the families nearby, the birds singing from the forest entrance an acre away, despite this hall being completely open (no roof, open windows, grand spacious arches) and being nothing but stone pillars, it was a sound vacuum. This was the oddest experience and due to it provided an almost supernatural energy to this 'room' alone. Remember that we had purposely not looked up this place at all before entry and had only picked a landmark off a map to visit to fill time, we didn't even know that this was the Presbytery it was only guess work that this grand piece of architecture was the 'holy' bit. We can only tell you this was spooky and imposing. We mention this only to enforce that historical experiences really can leave a mark. 

If you are open to it you can feel it, the buzz from what came before. We did it at Hailes, another place we knew nothing about, and it was the same here. There was an atmosphere and that is what inspired the undercurrent of fear within us. Not to mention that when we entered this section it was the only moment during our visit that the heavens opened. Yogi didn't like it in here, and although it was our favourite aspect, it was purely due to the gothic foreboding nature of the pillars making us seem so small.

Aside from this, Yogi was in his element, there were so many new smells to take in and so many new friends for him to make! He ran, greeted, smelled, and marked his way around these ruins, taking in everything we couldnt. To our surprise he was even allowed into the small museum which was where we headed next as the sun broke out following our exit from the spiritual grounds of the Presbytery.

The museum was fairly interesting, one room showed remnants of the water system and the filters the Monks had put in place, another was fallen architecture, coins, and shards of stained glass windows. Old money always interests us and it was interesting to see how small and flat this currency was.

What we really liked during our visit here was the almost comedic signs erected by English Heritage to encourage living in the moment. We encountered a few such as the one located in the flower bed outside of the museum, 'WARNING SMELLING THESE FLOWERS WILL TRANSPORT YOU BACK IN TIME'. These were fun and a nice way for EH to bring history to modern audiences while still encouraging respect for what is there. 

We went back through the Presbytery, through the Nave and explored the Cloister and surrounding ruins. Over this way was the only structure left from the original building back in 1132, this was the West Range. Nothing but rubble and stone walls no taller than us remained, but it was interesting to compare the aging to those left from a few years later. It was strange that the same eeriness from the Presbytery didn't follow us around the other structures, even the infirmary or Refectory which was similarly as grand and intact. The Cloister was well maintained and the rooms such as Treasury, Chapter House, and Dormitories were all barely there but mapped out. Standing in the footprint of them you got to realise how small they were in terms of the grandness of the structures surrounding. Granted in the later years there were only 14 choir Monks, 3 lay brothers and the Abbott who lived here so the buildings were reduced in size again accounting for those 15th century adjustments, but especially in the dormitory, it was tiny even if there were several storeys. 

We finished up in the Refectory, not much to see here other than those lovely windows and inside walls. It's interesting to note that this is the only large structure which was built during the late 12 century, the sole other building from this time bled out from the infirmary structures. If you're interested in the ages of the Abbey's construction then please do take a look at EH's ground plan as they have helpfully colour coded this and it makes for interesting learning.

There we stood by the entrance looking back at our first historical Yorkshire stop in awe. We'd made it, we'd experienced something grand, and our hearts and minds were a little broader for it. Yogi's legs were a little tireder. He napped in the car while we drove the few minutes up the road to Helmsley for our next stop.

So with our goodies from the child knick-knack heavy giftshop (why are those plastic bugs and squeezy balls still relevant?), we went on our way.

So in our new format, here's the summary:

Haunted: 6/10

Worth the visit: 9/10

Giftshop: 4/10

Ghost count: 0

Dog friendly: Yes

DISCLAIMER: Now for the official bit. This blog does not receive any paid promotions from the places mentioned above. We have not been approached to promote or act as spokespersons for any attraction mentioned within this post and this is simply a post intended to act as a day in the life of a couple on a cute date. All photos included are taken by ourselves and as such the rights for these images our ours, no links, brands, or companies mentioned otherwise belong or are associated with Phantom Adventures UK. We are responsible only for this blog. Opinions are our own and not influenced by any third party source.. 

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