Yorkshire: Fountains Abbey

Holiday (long) weekends are the best - and we recently had two of them back to back which made for a perfect opportunity to gallivant about.  We headed up to Yorkshire north of London for four days of site-seeing and togetherness.  To prove what dedicated travelers we were we departed at 5:00 to beat the holiday traffic around London.  We made great time as a result, but boy were we tired!  The first stop on our agenda was Fountains Abbey.  While thumbing through the National Trust book I had seen a picture that caught my eye and thus the trip was born.  It didn't hurt that it's also a World Heritage site - you know it's cool if it has that recognition.

First glimpse of the ruin.  Built during the 12th century, it was abandoned during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII.  The roof was removed to prevent the monks from returning and the window were removed to get the lead from the panes.

Pretty impressive window and tower - you can't really tell how tall they are in the picture.  How did they ever manage to build such things without modern machinery?

The River Skell.  They rerouted the river once to allow for expansion, then built another part of the abbey over the river when they needed to expand again.  Talk about ingenuity.

A view of the ruins from the back.

The tower in the transept.  Can you imagine how impressive it would have been in it's glory days?

Wisteria covered bridge leading to the water gardens.

12th century public restrooms

One last look at the abbey.