North Yorkshire - The Ruins at Helmsley and Rievaulx

Today, 14th August, we're castle hunting! We have been to a couple of castles so far - the still-in-use Windsor and Edinburgh castles. Today we're visiting the ruins of Helmsley Castle in Helmsley (I just like typing Helmsley -- reminds me for some reason of The Jeffersons). We will also explore what's left of Rievaulx Abbey. My parents visited both over 43 years ago.


Here's what's left of the remaining tower of Helmsley Castle. Helmsley (as I type it again, "Moving on up!" is playing on a loop in my head) began life in the 12th century. It was largely destroyed during a series of conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians during the English civil war.
As you can see the weather remains great - partly cloudy and upper 60s.


 
 
It took about 40 minutes to drive from Thirsk to Helmsley. The road conditions varied from normal city street and normal-width country road to 25% inclines on curvy roads barely a car width - meant as two-way streets - and the sides of the road were either tall walls and thickets or deep ditches.
My Dad and I brought a picnic with us, and we ate it while sitting on a bench in the market square of the Town of Helmsley. Had we known, we could have picnicked in the castle ruins itself - several families had been doing just that. 

Lunch sorted out, we drove about twenty minutes to Rievaulx Abbey. The Abbey is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere - not town-adjacent as Helmsley Castle had been. The road to get there were sporty....

Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire, England - August, 2013

Rievaulx Abbey was the home to Cistercian monks up until shortly after Henry VIII decided that divorce was preferable to papal authority and created the Church of England. The abbot wasn't too keen on the new game in town and created enough of a ruckus that the Abbey was forfeit to the crown. During its operation, the Abbey tended and harvested wool from sheep and did farming - one disastrous year (some sort of sheep plague) put the abbey in hock. The abbey never fully recovered from that, making the crown's take-over that much easier. Henry VIII took over a lot of Church property in this way. 

Sanctuary of Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire, England, August 2013

Still photos are pretty, but don't always convey the full scope and scale. To try my hand at being more of a conveyancer, here's a brief 2 minute video of the "inside" of the main sanctuary, pictured above. Friendly reminder - you may need to visit this page on www.vacaken.com to view the video. 


Rievaulx is pretty darned cool. 
 

A 25 minute car ride brought us back to Thirsk and the end of our last day in the Yorkshire Dales. Tomorrow we head back to the city of York, return the car, and head by train to the Riviera of northern Wales - Llandudno!