Fodor's Expert Review Studley Royal Water Garden & Fountains Abbey
You can easily spend a day at this UNESCO World Heritage Site, an 822-acre complex made up of an 18th-century water garden plus a deer park, an elegant Jacobean mansion, and Fountains Abbey, the largest set of monastic ruins in Britain. The landscape's neoclassical vision of an ordered universe—with spectacular terraces, classical temples, and a grotto—blends with the majestic Gothic abbey founded in 1132 and completed in the early 1500s. It housed Cistercian monks, known as "White Monks" after the color of their robes, who devoted their lives to silence, prayer, and work. Of the surviving buildings, the lay brothers' echoing refectory and dormitory are the most complete. Fountains Mill, built by the monks in the 12th century to grind grain for the monastery and one of the oldest buildings on the estate, was in operation until 1927. The mansion, Fountains Hall, is partially built with stones taken from the abbey, and there are two apartments in the Hall available for short stays.... READ MORE
You can easily spend a day at this UNESCO World Heritage Site, an 822-acre complex made up of an 18th-century water garden plus a deer park, an elegant Jacobean mansion, and Fountains Abbey, the largest set of monastic ruins in Britain. The landscape's neoclassical vision of an ordered universe—with spectacular terraces, classical temples, and a grotto—blends with the majestic Gothic abbey founded in 1132 and completed in the early 1500s. It housed Cistercian monks, known as "White Monks" after the color of their robes, who devoted their lives to silence, prayer, and work. Of the surviving buildings, the lay brothers' echoing refectory and dormitory are the most complete. Fountains Mill, built by the monks in the 12th century to grind grain for the monastery and one of the oldest buildings on the estate, was in operation until 1927. The mansion, Fountains Hall, is partially built with stones taken from the abbey, and there are two apartments in the Hall available for short stays. The water garden and Fountains Abbey are 9 miles northwest of Knaresborough, 4 miles southwest of Ripon.
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