Fountains Abbey

This is a pleasant long walk with the spectacular Fountains Abbey as its starting and ending point. Around 6 and a half miles in length this walk will take about 3 hours to complete and another few hours can be spent exploring the Abbey and its grounds.Getting ThereFrom Middlesbrough take the A19 south and turn right at the Thirsk turning onto the A61 which will take you towards Ripon. When arriving in Ripon look for the B265 right turning at a roundabout which will take you to Studley Park and Fountains Abbey. You would need to park at the smaller west car park at the far entrance to Fountains Abbey which is where you will start the walk.The Walk

 Fountains Abbey

  

 Fountain Abbey walk route

 

From the car park turn right uphill signed "Harrogate". At the fork in the road turn left signed "Markington, Harrogate" Just after the road bends right go

left at a footpath sign through the gate. 

Following the grassy path which is just inside the abbey wall, passing a small pond. You should have a view of the abbey along the way.

 

                                                              View of the AbbeyGo through a waymarked gate and follow the track as it bends round to the right through another gate then bend left to a gate into Hill House Farm.Turn right, then follow the footpath signs to go left at the end of the large shed then right. Go through a metal gate on to a track. At the end of the hedge, go ahead down the field to a gate in the wood. Follow the track, passing the ruined archway, to descend to reach a crossroads of tracks.

 Ruined Archway

 

Go straight ahead signposted as "Ripon". The track climbs to a gate with a Ripon Rowell Walk sign. Follow the track beside the line of trees to a gate on

Whitcliffe Lane. Turn right. At the top of the rise go straight ahead on the metalled road.

 Go over the cattle grid by Bland Close, then leave the lane to go ahead with the hedge on your right to a gateway. Continue along the waymarked track,

eventually with woodland to your right.  Follow the park wall through a gateway to a gate on a lane. Turn right to farm buildings by Markenfield Hall.

 

 Markenfield Hall

  Follow the wall to the left, going through a metal gate and straight ahead down the track, over a stile by a gate. Follow the track, then a waymark sign, across a field to a stile by a gate. Turn right up the narrow Strait Lane to emerge into a field.

 Track before Strait Lane

Follow the waymarked path beside the hedge. Go through a gate in the field corner and continue with the hedge to the right. Go through two more gates. At a third gate, don't go through, but bend left through a hedge gap and down the field side, with the hedge right, to go through a gate onto Whitcliffe Lane.Turn left an follow the lane, which leads in the direction of How Hill Tower, an 18th century folly to a T-junction. Turn right here and follow the road back to the car park. You are now able to explore the Abbey.

 

How Hill Tower

 Fountains Abbey

  

Fountains Abbey  Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately three miles south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the

abbey operated for over 400 years, until 1539, when Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries.The abbey is a Grade I listed building owned by the National Trust and part of the designated Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey UNESCO World Heritage Site After a dispute and riot in 1132 at the Benedictine house of St Mary's Abbey, in York, 13 monks were expelled (among them Saint Robert of Newminster) and, after unsuccessfully attempting to return to the early 6th-century Rule of St Benedict, were taken into the protection of Thurstan, Archbishop of York.[ He provided them with land in the valley of the River Skell, a tributary of the Ure. The enclosed valley had all the natural features needed for the creation of a monastery, providing shelter from the weather, stone and timber for building, and a supply of running water. After enduring a harsh winter in 1133, the monks applied to join the Cistercian order and in 1135 became the second house of that order in northern England, after Rievaulx. The monks subjected themselves to Clairvaux Abbey, in Burgundy which was under the rule of St Bernard. Under the guidance of Geoffrey of Ainai, a monk sent from Clairvaux, the group learned how to celebrate the seven Canonical Hours and were shown how to construct wooden buildings in accordance with Cistercian practice.After Henry Murdac was elected to the abbacy in 1143, the small stone church and timber claustral buildings were replaced. Within three years, an aisled nave had been added to the stone church, and the first permanent claustral buildings built in stone and roofed in tile had been completed.In 1146 an angry mob, displeased with Murdac's role in opposing the election of William FitzHerbert to the archbishopric of York, attacked the abbey and burnt down all but the church and some surrounding buildings. The community recovered swiftly from the attack and founded four daughter houses. Henry Murdac resigned the abbacy in 1147 to become the Archbishop of York and was replaced first by Maurice, Abbot of Rievaulx then, on the resignation of Maurice, by Thorald. Thorald was forced by Henry Murdac to resign after two years in office. The next abbot, Richard, held the post until his death in 1170 and restored the abbey's stability and prosperity. In 20 years as abbot, he supervised a huge building programme which involved completing repairs to the damaged church and building more accommodation for the increasing number of recruits. Only the chapter house was completed before he died and the work was ably continued by his successor, Robert of Pipewell, under whose rule the abbey gained a reputation for caring for the needy.The next abbot was William who presided over the abbey from 1180 to 1190 and he was succeeded by Ralph Haget, who had entered Fountains at the age of 30 as a novice, after pursuing a military career. During the European famine of 1194 Haget ordered the construction of shelters in the vicinity of the abbey and provided daily food rations to the poor enhancing the abbey's

reputation for caring for the poor and attracting more grants from wealthy benefactors.In the first half of the 13th century Fountains increased in reputation and prosperity under the next three abbots, John of York (1203–1211), John of Hessle (1211–1220) and John of Kent (1220–1247). They were burdened with an inordinate amount of administrative duties and increasing demands for money in taxation and levies but managed to complete another massive expansion of the abbey's buildings. This included enlarging the church and building an infirmary. In the second half of the 13th century the abbey was in more straitened circumstances. It was presided over by eleven abbots, and became financially unstable largely due to forward selling its wool crop, and the abbey was criticised for its dire material and physical state when it was visited by Archbishop John Romeyn in 1294. The run of disasters that befell the community continued into the early 14th century when northern England was invaded by the Scots and there were further demands for taxes. The culmination of these misfortunes was the Black Death of 1349–1349. The loss of manpower and income due to the ravages of the plague was almost ruinous.A further complication arose as a result of the Papal Schism of 1378–1409. Fountains Abbey along with other English Cistercian houses was told to break off any contact with the mother house of Citeaux, which supported a rival pope. This resulted in the abbots forming their own chapter to rule the order in England and consequently they became increasingly involved in internecine politics. In 1410, following the death of Abbott Burley of Fountains, the community was riven by several years of turmoil over the election of his successor. Contending candidates John Ripon, Abbot of Meaux, and Roger Frank, a monk of Fountains were locked in discord until 1415 when Ripon was finally appointed and presided until his death in 1434. Under abbots John Greenwell (1442–1471), Thomas Swinton (1471–8), John Darnton (1478–95), who undertook some much needed restoration of the fabric of the abbey including notable work on the church, and Marmaduke Huby (1495–1526) Fountains regained stability and prosperity.When Marmaduke Huby died he was succeeded by William Thirsk who was accused by the royal commissioners of immorality and inadequacy and dismissed from the abbacy and replaced by Marmaduke Bradley, a monk of the abbey who had reported Thirsk's supposed offences, testified against him and offered the authorities six hundred marks for the abbacy. In 1539 Bradley surrendered the abbey when Henry VIII ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries.