Fountains Abbey ~ Medium Walk

Distance Covered:  5.5 miles Time to Complete Walk: 2.5 hours

Suitable for dog walking: No 

The fantastic Fountains Abbey is an example of the best Yorkshire can offer with its beautifully maintained abbey and surrounding countryside. On this walk you explore its surroundings- a deer park where you may spot a deer, its walls, the Seven Bridges Valley and the stunning St Marys Church. All this without paying any entry fee or parking fees!

You can of course visit the Abbey resulting in a well spent entrance fee. However if you are on a tight budget this walk is ideal and a great day out!

General Safety Tips: If you are nervous around cows, this walk may not be your cup of tea, there were cows in a field but they were happily grazing. The farmyard towards the start of the walk can be extremely muddy and also you may encounter more cows in the farmyard. Take a walking stick and boots/wellies. Be careful on the roads and ensure you are visible to any traffic.

The Fountains Abbey Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough follow the A19 to Thirsk and follow it past Thirsk which then becomes the A168. At a roundabout follow the Dishforth Road turnoff. At another roundabout, take the left turn off onto the A61 and then at another roundabout head into Ripon on the B265. Leave Ripon staying on the B265/Studley Road which is a left turn over the River Laver.  Finally, leave the B265 on a left turn to Fountains Abbey. Drive past the visitors centre and take a left turn and follow the road down to the West Gate car park on your right which is where the walk starts. Parking is free of charge.

Maps Of the Fountains Abbey walk

The Walk

From the car park turn right and climb the road ahead keeping left at a fork in the road. Note that to your left from the carpark is the entrance to the Abbey which you can explore before the walk for an entrance fee.

Keep on this road which offers a brilliant view of Fountains Abbey to your left. Keep following the road as it bends and look for a left turn and waymarker and go through a gate.

Follow the grass track through a field with more views of the abbey to your left. Head towards a gate at the end of the field on your left.

Go through the gate and another gate beyond.

Head in the direction of the waymarker over the field towards another gate near a wood.

Follow the grassy path as it bends into a farmyard.

Follow the waymarkers through the farmyard and out of the farmyard to another waymarker ahead.

Follow the track from the farm to another waymarker and descend down to the woods.

Follow the woods until you come to an archway to your left, which is the entrance to the deer park.

Enter the deer park, carefully following the grassy track down keeping your eyes peeled for any deer!

Follow the direction of the waymark and descend down the track to another gate.

Follow the path down and head towards the lake on your left for a minor diversion. 

Double back and take the left fork as it follows onto the Seven Bridges Valley (only five bridges remain). Follow the path over the bridges as the fords may be flooded.

Go over the final bridge and through the gate beyond.

Follow the path and keep on it as it comes out of the woods and onto a path with views of Ripon Cathedral to your right.

Follow this path until you arrive at the entrance of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal on your left.

Follow this long path as it makes its way to the magnificent St Marys Church in the distance. 

The beautiful church and the obelisk are worth a visit. 

Leave the park through the gate ahead and turn left and follow the path to the Visitors Centre.

You can pay the entrance fee here if you want to explore Fountains Abbey. If not leave to the left of the roundabout and walk the road carefully and cross over to a gap in the hedge.

Follow the enclosed path and when you emerge onto the road, cross over to a path on the left of the road.

Emerge onto a road and carefully follow this down and to the left and back to the entrance to the abbey and the car park on your right. 

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the abbey operated for 407 years, becoming one of the wealthiest monasteries in England until its dissolution, by order of Henry VIII, in 1539.In 1983, Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey was purchased by the National Trust. The abbey is maintained by English Heritage.After a dispute and riot in 1132 at the Benedictine house of St Mary's Abbey in York, 13 monks were expelled, among them Saint Robert of Newminster. They were taken under the protection of Thurstan, Archbishop of York, who provided them with land in the valley of the River Skell, a tributary of the Ure. The enclosed valley had all the natural features needed for the creation of a monastery, providing shelter from the weather, stone and timber for building, and a supply of running water. The six springs that watered the site inspired the monks to give it the name of Fountains. After enduring a harsh winter in 1133, the monks applied to join the Cistercian order, which since the end of the previous century had been a fast-growing reform movement and by the beginning of the 13th century had more than 500 houses. In 1135 Fountains became the second Cistercian house in northern England, after Rievaulx. The monks of Fountains became subject to Clairvaux Abbey in Burgundy, which was under the rule of St Bernard. Under the guidance of Geoffrey of Ainai, a monk sent from Clairvaux, the group learned how to celebrate the seven Canonical Hours according to Cistercian usage and were shown how to construct wooden buildings in accordance with Cistercian practice.

Studley Royal Park

Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey is a designated World Heritage Site in North Yorkshire, England. The site, which has an area of 323 hectares (800 acres)  features an 18th-century landscaped garden, some of the largest Cistercian ruins in Europe, ruins of a Jacobean mansion and a Victorian church designed by William Burges. It was developed around the house, destroyed in a fire in 1946, and eventually came to include the ruins of the Cistercian Fountains Abbey.

From 1452 onwards, Studley Royal was inhabited by the Mallory family, most notably by MPs John Mallory and William Mallory. John Aislabie inherited the Studley estate from his elder brother in 1693. He was the Tory Member of Parliament for Ripon in 1695, and in 1718 became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Aislabie was a principal sponsor of the South Sea Company scheme, the bill for which was promoted by him personally. In 1720 when this vast financial operation collapsed, he was expelled from Parliament and disqualified for life from public office.Aislabie returned to Yorkshire and devoted himself to the creation of the garden he had begun in 1718. After his death in 1742, his son William extended his scheme by purchasing the remains of the Abbey and Fountains Hall. He extended the landscaped area in the picturesque romantic style, contrasting with the formality of his father's work. Between them, the two created what is arguably England's most important 18th-century Water Garden.After William's death, the estate passed to his daughter Elizabeth Allanson and then to her niece, Mrs Elizabeth Sophie Lawrence, who lived there from 1808 until her death in 1845. It then devolved to Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, a distant relative on whose death in 1859 the estate passed to his nephew the Marquess of Ripon, the Viceroy of India, who built St Mary's church in the park. On the death of Frederick Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon in 1923, the estate was acquired by his cousin Clare George Vyner.In 1966 the estate was bought by West Riding County Council and in 1983 was taken over by the National Trust.