Of Lenses and Moose: Fountains Abbey

I was going to blog my first visit of the year to Alnwick, with Ma, next. But I have decided to combine the post with my pictures from last week's visit with Sarah. So as I haven't finished going through those from last week I decided to blog Fountains instead.

It is many years since I visited, but it was just as amazing as I remembered. It must have been amazingly impressive when it was a living breathing community of Cistercian monks. For those who don't know (I had to look up some of the details as well), a group of Benedictine monks from elsewhere moved here for a simpler life. Life was very hard there at the beginning, and the nearby Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx helped them to get started, so they became Cistercians (the white monks). There is an amazingly large amount of it still remaining, presumably because it was so remote from everywhere that it was too hard for people to come and rob all the stonework - and many wouldn't have known it was there to rob.

It was a lovely day, around 23degC with a mix of sun and cloud. Because it was half term week there were family groups everywhere (groan!). Great for that - you can bring your rug and picnic and just come and sprawl out for the day, there is loads of space. There were of course the horrible children who saw the walls as a challenge. I would probably have done the same at that age of course - until I was shouted down - but I would never have scaled to first floor windows as some were doing. Made our blood run cold!

Access incidentally is excellent. I had remembered a walk down into the valley from the car park, and I was right - but there is another car park for disabled which gives level access. So I was thinking that maybe that's what Mol would like to do on our way home. There's a decent restaurant up top where the shop is - but I can drive to the car parks up there to visit them.

Anyway. To the grand tour.

Huby's Tower as we approached the valley (he was one of Fountain's greatest abbots)

This range is the guest houses

The nave (in case you didn't guess)

The nave - upper windows

Still the nave....

And again. The high altar was on the flat area you can just make out beyond the tourists

Where the high altar was - they have laid various areas of tiles found around the ruins

Beyond the high altar - the Chapel of the 9 Altars. The 9 small Chapels were used by priests to say mass on request

The Abbot's House - I love how the thin arch over the window is left

A walk through near the muniment room (I think)

I think this is the Chapter House behind Sarah

One range of the cloisters - you can see where 2 levels of roof were from the beam slots in the wall. Nave beyond

The room where Sarah is standing was a kitchen as Sarah had guessed - there were drain channels in the floor. The Refectory is next to it, through the door on the RHS. I couldn't work out where the fire would have been though. This covered area is apparently the "round-headed hatch" into the refectory - can't figure out how that worked.