Mount Grace Priory ~ Medium Walk

Distance Covered:  3 miles Time to Complete Walk: 1.5 hours

Suitable for dog walking: No

A short yet vigorous walk from the amazing Mount Grace Priory- the best preserved Carthusian monastery in Britain. Explore the priory with its beautiful architecture- (do not miss the Monks House to the left of the grounds). Then walk up Mount Grace Woods to visit the wonderful Lady Chapel with its unique fifteen stations of the cross markers along the route to the chapel. Then return back to the priory for a coffee in its cafe!. A great walk for Autumn/Winter!

General Safety Tips: Be careful through the woods - take a walking stick and negotiate the path carefully. Try and do the walk after a few dry days. 

     The Mount Grace Priory Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough, follow the A19 northbound until just before the Osmotherley turnoff, turn left signposted to Mount Grace Priory. Parking is ample and costs £3.00 all day which you can pay with the entrance fee to the Priory. Visiting costs £12.50 or £15.50 including parking fees. If you book ahead you can save money.

Maps of the Mount Grace Priory Walk

The Walk

From the car park head out and past the cafe, turn left and then right into the building and the ticket office.

Explore the Priorys peaceful grounds and the remains of the monastery, dont miss the Monks Cell to the left of the grounds.

After you have fully explored the Priory head out back to the car park and look for a stile to your left and enter the field

Shortly after you enter the field go over another stile on your left and over a wooden bridge and into the woods.

Follow the obvious path through the woods over another small bridge.

The woodland path rises gradually diagonally to the left

Climb to the top and over a stile onto a path near a field

Follow the track near a fence and then climb up to your left onto the field.

Follow the path keeping to the side of the field and ahead onto a track

At the top. follow the path around to the left and to a waymarked gate.

Head towards the farmyard and through another gate.

Head right walking through the farmyard and then take a sharp right onto the Cleveland Way.

Follow the path until you come to a sharp left which is the path to the Lady Chapel.

Keep ahead on the track looking out for a plaque on your left.

The path to the chapel is made more special with the fifteen stations of the crosses added to the side of the track.

The chapel is a nice peaceful place and you can enter the chapel to light a candle or gather your thoughts!

After you have finished visiting the chapel head back to the priory. Dont forget to head down to the left to enter the woods on the way back. The cafe at the priory is well worth a visit to end your walk!

Mount Grace Priory

The Mount Grace Charterhouse was founded in 1398 by Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, the son of King Richard II's half-brother Thomas, Earl of Kent. It was the last monastery established in Yorkshire, and one of the few founded anywhere in Britain in the period between the Black Death (1349–50) and the Reformation. It was a fairly small establishment, with space for a prior and a total of twenty-three monks.

The monastery consisted of a church and two cloisters. The Great Cloister, to the north of the church, had seventeen cells for monks ("choir monks") whilst the southern Lesser Cloister had six cells for the lay brothers.

Following the abdication and eventual murder of King Richard II, Holland and others of the king's supporters attempted to assassinate his recently crowned successor, Henry IV, at New Year, 1400, but were captured and executed. Holland's body was eventually recovered and, in 1412, re-buried in the charterhouse that he had founded. Orphaned by these events of its founder and bereft of the income that had been granted to it by Holland and King Richard, Mount Grace was obliged to depend upon royal largesse for its income for more than a decade.

Lady Chapel

This holy and historic chapel is the diocesan shrine for the Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough. Located on the edge of the North York Moors National Park and overlooking the scenic village of Osmotherley, the site affords panoramic views over Teesside, Bilsdale and, on a clear day, as far as the Pennine hills.

Built by Carthusian monks from nearby Mount Grace Priory in the 15th century, it was until recently cared for, on behalf of the Diocese of Middlesbrough, by Benedictine monks from Ampleforth Abbey.  It is now under the pastoral care of St Mary’s Cathedral, Middlesbrough.

On this site you will find information relating to the Shrine’s history and its connection with Queen Katherine of Aragon, details of weekly Mass times and pilgrimages, how to request prayers at the shrine and how to plan a visit or book a wedding. All are welcome.