Fountains Abbey

We were very happy to have a day to go to Fountains Abbey which is just southwest of Ripon. It is the ruins of the abbey and quite beautiful. We set off Wednesday to go forgetting a key thing in England... our rain jackets. Well, as soon as we bought our tickets, the skies opened up and the rain began to fall. Scotty was so upset. We got a bite to eat from the little cafe and waited it out, determined that our day away from UJ wouldn't be ruined! Sure enough, just a little while later, the sky cleared and it was a somewhat beautiful day. There is a nice 1/2 mile hike to the abbey and here is our first view.


Here is the kind of guest house where people would stay who weren't there usually.

When you step into the open door of the abbey, this is what you see. The opening at the far end was at one time a great stained glass window. I almost like it better open where God's creation is the picture there.

The pillars are amazing. I cannot imagine the work that went into this building. Everything is made out of sandstone that was taken from the hills. The colors of it are beautiful.

You can look at the people at the bottom of this picture to get an idea of how large that window is. It was unbelievable.



This is a pretty famous section of the abbey. Weddings even take place here. Again, the architecture is amazing.




These kids were on a field trip I believe. Don't the little monks look cute in their robes?

We walked around to the Water Garden. It is quite neat. The designers of this put little dam type things every so often in the stream to slow the water down. The still water made mirrors so that you could see the beauty of the abbey everywhere. They also didn't want it to become stagnant so they put a system in underground to push water through to keep it circulating.

This picture was taken from Anne Boleyn's Seat. You had to hike a little ways up quite a steep hill, but it was worth it when you got there. The view was amazing. You should take some time to research Anne Boleyn. It is interesting. She was the second of King Henry VIII's six wives. She was beheaded and was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I.

When you got past the final bit of the water garden you could hike up another steep climb to the octagon tower. It was pretty neat and offered a great view of the water garden (not too impressive). I am not sure what its purpose was, but it looks neat.

In order to get to the Octagon Tower, you had to go through this. The Serpentine Tunnel. It was dark and dark and dark and scary. If you know me, you know that I hated this. It was terrible!!! But... I did it, there and back!

We walked through a deer park to get back to the Visitor Center. It was amazing. I have never seen so many wild deer in one place. They were there in herds. It was beautiful.

This is St. Mary's Church. It is in the middle of the deer park. It is quite beautiful!

We had a wonderful day and to top it all off, I got chocolate ice cream before the drive home! What a way to end the day!! This really is a great place to visit. The ruins are amazing and you get a lot of exercise. We walked at least four miles around this place!