Set
in a remote valley in the North York Moors National Park, the abbey lies in a
wooded dale by the River Rye, sheltered by hills.
Rievaulx is one of the most complete, and atmospheric, of England’s abbey
ruins.
To have enough flat land to build on,
a small part of the river was diverted several meters west of its former
channel. The monks altered the course of the river three times during the 12th
century---one example of the technical ingenuity of the monks.
Built
in 1135 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey, it was the first Cistercian abbey
in northern England. Over time the monks built up a very profitable business
mining lead and iron, raising sheep and selling wool to buyers from all over Europe. It became one of the
wealthiest abbeys in England.
The abbey was very large housing
150 choir monks and 500 lay brothers. The chapter house, where the monks went
to read, was on the south side.
Towards
the end of the 13th century the abbey had incurred a great deal of debt with
its building projects and lost revenue due to an epidemic of sheep scab, which was compounded by Scottish raids in the early 14th
century. Then came the Black Death in the mid
14th century making it difficult to recruit new lay brothers for manual labor.
As a result the abbey was forced to lease much of its land. By 1381 there were
only fourteen choir monks, three lay
brothers and the abbot left at Rievaulx
After
400 years it was one of the last monasteries to close under King Henry VIII, in
1538.
It
must have been exquisite in its day because the ruins are now, over 800 years later. Many of its graceful Gothic arches remain
standing. Excavation of the abbey started in 1920.
The
setting and scenery was lovely, restful and peaceful. We wandered around the
ruins for sometime trying to imagine what it must have been like in its heyday.
I’ve visited many such ruins and these were some of the largest and
loveliest.
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