Ripon
- Maximus Nostramabus
- Jul 16, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: May 3
Lush and water of royal beauty - Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey 372
What and Why
An absolute delight to the eye and camera, the Studley Royal Park is a huge beautiful park of green, water and a Cistercian (Latin: Cisterciensis) abbey ruin. It is located in Ripon and offers an enjoyable day of picnic and outing. The abbey ruins go as far as the 12th century while the park is largely built during the 18th century. The park had profound influence for future parks as it paved the way for the popularisation of the concept of English gardens.
Toponymy
While the name to the park is unclear, Studley comes from Old English 'stod' meaning 'stud farm' + 'leah' meaning 'wood or pasture'. The city is named after the abbot of the Fountains, John Ripon who was abbot during the 15th century.
See
We follow the above plan using the circuit starting from the visitor centre and ending with Saint Mary's church.
To be absolutely honest, I did not expect Ripon to stop me in my tracks. I was technically trying to tick another UNESCO box and take a rest here. What happened instead was one of those quiet, unhurried days that end up staying with you far longer than the grander, more famous sites. Studley Royal Park is vast, serene, and surprisingly and absurdly beautiful: a Georgian water garden framing a ruined mediaeval abbey, all set in rolling Yorkshire countryside. I was also extremely fortunate that I visited the place on a very clear afternoon, and the vista became absolutely fantastic.
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in the United Kingdom. Founded during the 12th century, the abbey operated for more than 400 years and became one of the wealthiest monasteries in England. The term Cistercian derives from Cistercium, the Latin name for the French village of Cîteaux, where a group of Benedictine monks from the monastery of Molesme founded Cîteaux Abbey in the late 11th century, with the goal of following more closely the Benedictine rules and became a new Catholic order.
In spite of the fact that the abbey has almost completely collapsed and ruins, one cannot mistake the majesty and size of the abbey. We tend to use the word 'ruin' apologetically, but standing inside what was once the nave, with the great window frame rising open to the sky where the stained glass would have been, the absence is actually just as powerful as any intact cathedral I have visited. My eyes and brain filled in what the Dissolution of the Monasteries took away. The sheer scale of this once the wealthiest monasteries in England made the silence and ruins enormous.
Former nave.
The cloistered, former dining hall.
The tower.
Fountains Hall
Just beside the abbey stands Fountains Hall, a Jacobean mansion built in the early 17th century, using stone quarried directly from the abbey ruins. It is a handsome, slightly stern building, and apparently very haunted. I am not personally a ghost-story believer, but even the most sceptical visitor would admit there is something about eery about the combination of a stone mansion and a ruined abbey that did make me shiver a bit.
Water garden
The crown of the entire premise. The Georgian garden's elegant ornamental lakes, canals, temples and cascades provide a succession of dramatic eye-catching vistas. Some of the photospots include the massive waterway and garden, the Octagonal Tower, the Temple of Fame, and the obelisk. This is the work of disgraced politician but obsessive gardener, John Aislabie, who spent the last forty years of his life creating this as an act of either redemption or defiance, and it shows. The geometric precision of the canals and crescent moon pond gives way to dramatic surprise views of the abbey ruins, framed through tree lines.
Water park.
The centrepiece crescent pool.
Saint Mary's Church
Described as a Victorian shrine, and in some documents an 'ecclesiastical masterpiece'. During the period Romanticism is the trend and hence once can see all sorts of hints of European flavour in the park.
The church is deliberately Victorian Gothic, richly decorated, almost aggressively ornate compared to the ruined simplicity of the abbey. This contrasting end-point and forms a full circuit of English religious architecture in a single afternoon: Cistercian, Jacobean, Georgian and finally Victorian. Nowhere else I have visited compresses that arc so neatly into a single walk.
Travel Suggestions and Logistics
Drive only, although there are occasional buses from Leeds or York to Ripon. The park is a good day or afternoon walk. The entrance fee is GBP £16.50. We can also connect a trip with Saltaire in our blogged Bradford for a full-day trip.
UNESCO Inscription
In the 18th century a designed landscape of exceptional beauty was created around the ruins of the Cistercian Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire. The spectacular ruins of the 12th century abbey and water mill, the Jacobean mansion of Fountains Hall, the Victorian masterpiece St Mary’s Church and one of the most magnificent Georgian water gardens ever created, make this a landscape of outstanding merit.
References
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Please share your thoughts and comments about the blog. If you need suggestions to build a travel itinerary, please let me know. More than willing to help. I would also like to build a bespoke-in-depth travel community around UNESCO WHS and ICH.
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