WALK: Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, North Yorkshire
Monastery in the garden
A rite of passage for all local buggy-pushing parents and grandparents, a walk around Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal is one of Yorkshire’s best days out, says Paul Kirkwood
The twin National Trust properties of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden near Ripon offer an outstanding walk for all seasons of the year, but particularly winter. Young and old alike love using the clear, well-surfaced paths to explore the steps, follies, bridges, grottos, arches and a tunnel, to say nothing of the striking ruins of the 12th-century Cistercian abbey and 17th-century water garden.
There’s also a restaurant and café at either end of the route. Use your imagination to give names to shapes in the trees and fallen trunks that dot the deer park, the third element of the estate. Allow a full day for your visit as there is masses to see and plenty of places you will want to linger.
THE ROUTE
5 miles/8.1km | 3–4 hours | MODERATE
1. 17TH-CENTURY HALL
Follow signs from the visitor centre to the abbey. Fork right towards Fountains Hall, which includes a display about how the estate provided work for lads from Tyneside during the Great Depression. Leave the hall, cross the track and continue ahead through a garden and over a footbridge. Turn left through an orchard.
2. MILLER’S TALES
Your next stop, the mill, was too valuable to be demolished during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, so remains essentially intact. From the mill, turn left over a bridge and bear right on to a path past the abbey, diverting to explore it.
The ruins tell the story of 400 years of monastic life, years of riches, ruin and revival.
3. FOLLY PARADE
Turn right over a rustic bridge then fork right on to De Grey’s Wharf and turn left. Follow the path as it bears sharp left. Pass Ann Boleyn’s Seat shelter with its surprise view, followed by the Temple of Fame and Octagon Tower follies, then drop back down to the lakeside via a tunnel. Turn left to visit the Temple of Piety and Moon Pond then back to continue along the lakeside. Turn left to cross the canal by a footbridge.
4. FINE DINING
Turn left on to a path signed to the Georgian Banqueting House. Fork right and steeply up to visit it, then retrace your steps to the deer park exit. Walk around the lake then cross a bridge.
5. BRIDGES EXTENSION
Follow the path into the Seven Bridges Valley. The last bridge is beyond a gate. Retrace your steps towards the car park. Cross the road and continue ahead signed to the overflow car park, bearing slightly left.
6. FINISH IN CHURCH
On a grassy path, walk towards St Mary’s Church and the adjacent Choristers’ House, now a holiday cottage. Turn left on to a gravel path. Pass through a gate near an obelisk, then turn immediately left to follow a path beside the road back to the visitor centre.
SITE DETAILS
Visitor centre, house, gardens, cafés, shop, parking, toilets. Adult £17, NT members free. nationaltrust.org.uk
Yorkshire-based Paul Kirkwood loves exploring the UK with his family.