Jervaulx Abbey ~ Medium Walk

Distance Covered: 7 miles Time to Complete Walk 3 hours

Suitable for dog walking: No - Sheep in most fields

A walk from the beautiful remains of Jervaulx Abbey. Walk beside the River Ure and then through hamlets towards fields and lanes, and finally back to the Abbey itself. The Abbey is maintained by donations from visitors and the parking is on a donation basis as well. You can start or end the walk by a visit to the Abbey. The Abbey tea-rooms are sadly closed for the forseeable future.

General Safety Tips:  Take extra care on the roadside - walk facing the traffic on the grass verge. Check the level of the River Ure before the walk. The walk is a long walk at 7 miles so a decent level of fitness is required.

The Jervaulx Abbey Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough, head onto the A19 turning of onto the A684 to Northallerton. Go through Northallerton and follow the A167 out of the town. Keep right on a roundabout onto the A684 to Bedale. Shortly after Bedale keep left onto Sinks Lane. Follow this to turn left onto Moor End Lane which then becomes No Mans Moor Lane. Turn left onto Marriforth Lane and down Masham Bank. Take a right turn onto the A6108. Shortly after a clear sign for Jervaulx Abbey car park is on your left. Parking is subject to a donation.

Maps of the Jervaulx Abbey Walk

The Walk

From the car park turn left onto the A6108.

Keep on the grass verge and carefully cross over the road when you come to a sign to your right heading down a track.

Head through a gate and follow the riverside path to your left.

Head through a gate and keep on the path observing the mill on the other side of the river.

Go through a gate and onto the narrower path until you come to a gate with a road and a bridge to your right.

Carefully turn right and walk over the bridge passing the Inn on your left.

Turn right at the junction heading over another bridge.

Entering the hamlet of Ulshaw turn right onto a road and pass a church on your left.

Keep on the road ahead and when the road bends sharply left keep ahead on the track towards the mill.

When the path splits keep to the left hand side.

Pass the mill and go through the gate ahead.

Keep on the grassy track as it climbs

Danby Hall is in view to your left. Leave the main path on a visible path to your right in the grass towards a marker post.

Follow the direction of the marker post until you come to a stile.

Cross over the next field to a gate.

Trace the borders of several fields going through successive gates in the same direction. 

Go over a stream and through more gates and arrive at St Oswalds Church on your left.

The church is worth a visit for a pitstop.

After you finish visiting the church turn left and continue on the path ahead as it twists and climbs to the village of Thornton Steward.

Enter the village through a gate and walk to the end of the village green.

Shortly after the village green when you come to a junction head down the road to your right signed by a public footpath sign.

Head down and left on the track passing the front of some houses.

Head through a gate and follow the signpost ahead signed to Kilgram Bridge.

Head to the left and through a gate onto a narrow field

Head through the next gate into another field

In this field you want to head to the far right corner of the field. Head towards the trees first and then keep to the border of the field ahead.

With the hedge to your right head to a stile at the far end of the field.

Keep to the edge of the next field and go through a gate.

Head through a gate next to the barn in the farm

Shortly after the gate turn right into the field and head diagonally towards a stile.

Head for the far left corner of the next field and to another stile.

Keeping the hedge to your left in this field only cross the field halfway and turn left into the next field via a gate.

Bear slightly to the right in the next field towards another stile.

Head diagonally over the track in the next field towards a house.

Before reaching the house, turn left and follow the track to another stile

Turn right and cross over Kilgram Bridge.

Follow the road on the grass verge for some time as it twists and turns. Just before a sharp bend to the left follow the path ahead into the Jervaulx Abbey grounds.

Follow the path as it passes a pond on the right and eventually to the entry path to the Abbey.

You can take your time to explore the amazing grounds of the Abbey for a donation at the start of the Abbey grounds. 

When you have finished head out of the Abbey grounds and cross the road to the car park ahead.

Jervaulx Abbey in East Witton, 14 miles north-west of the city of Ripon, was one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, England, dedicated to St Mary in 1156. It is a Grade I listed building

The place name Jervaulx is first attested in 1145, where it appears as Jorvalle. The name is French for 'the Ure valley' and is perhaps a translation of the English 'Ure-dale', also known as Yoredale. The valley is now called Wensleydale.

Initially a Savigniac foundation out of Normandy, the abbey was later taken over by the Cistercian order from Burgundy and responsibility for it was taken by Byland Abbey. Founded in 1145 at Fors near Aysgarth, it was moved ten years later to a site a few miles away on the banks of the River Ure. In 1145, in the reign of King Stephen, Akarius Fitz Bardolph, who was Lord of Ravensworth, gave Peter de Quinciano, a monk from Savigny, land at Fors and Worton, in Wensleydale, to build a monastery of their order. The monastery there was successively called the Abbey of Fors, Jervaulx and Charity. Grange, 5 miles (8 km) west-north-west of Aysgarth, a hamlet in the township of Low Abbotside in the parish of Aysgarth, is the original site of Fors Abbey. After it was abandoned it was known by the name of Dale Grange and now by that of the Grange alone.

Serlo, then Abbot of Savigny, disapproved of the foundation, since it had been made without his knowledge and consent. He refused to supply it with monks from his abbey because of the great difficulties experienced by those he had previously sent to England. Therefore in a general chapter he proposed that it be transferred to the Abbey of Belland (Byland), which was closer and would be able to provide the assistance required by the new foundation. Monks were sent from Byland and after they had undergone great hardships because of the meagreness of their endowment and sterility of their lands Conan, son of Alan, 1st Earl of Richmond, greatly increased their revenues and in 1156 moved their monastery to its better location in East Witton. Here the monks erected a new church and monastery, which, like most of the Cistercian order, was dedicated to St Mary. At the height of its prosperity the abbey owned half of the valley and was renowned for breeding horses, a tradition that remains in Middleham to the present day. It was also the original home of Wensleydale cheese, originally made with ewes' milk. In 1279 Abbot Philip of Jervaulx was murdered by one of his monks. His successor, Abbot Thomas, was initially accused of the crime, but a jury later determined that he was not to blame, and another monk fled under outlawry.

According to John Speed, at the Dissolution it was valued at £455 10s. 5d. The last abbot, Adam Sedbergh, joined the Pilgrimage of Grace and was hanged at Tyburn in June 1537, when the monastic property was forfeited to the king.[9]