As you might have gathered from previous blog posts, we love visiting Yorkshire (please don’t let the locals know as we are from Lancashire and they might not let us back in). This time, we chose an area we have visited before; the Yorkshire Dales, north of York, around Ripon, Thirsk and Bedale.
Tue 31st May 2022
Jervaulx Abbey
We booked our first night’s stay at Jervaulx Abbey, which has a caravan site. We arrived at around 4:30pm, in very heavy rainfall, but once it cleared, we did a bit of exploring.
The abbey ruins are owned privately and provide a venue for weddings as well as a nice place to stay with a motorhome (the site is over the road from the abbey).
Like so many such places, the reformation resulted in its dissolution and destruction in the 1530’s. Nevertheless, what remains is quite impressive. It is difficult to get a real idea of the size of the place, but the church (not pictured) was around 250 feet long.
It is a beautiful and peaceful setting (we were the only visitors) and there was plenty of wildlife around, including:…
Wed 1st June 2022
Rievaulx Abbey
The following morning, we moved on to Rievaulx Abbey which is in the care of English Heritage. There is much more remaining of Rievaulx than Jervaulx, and it is a bigger and more impressive site overall.
Just the eastern end of the church remains standing. When it was whole, it must have been an immense structure which would have rivalled many cathedrals.
As a way of entertaining child visitors, there were small named figures of monks dotted around the ruins for them to find. In the Chapter House, we saw “Peter”
There is a museum, which as many items salvaged from archeological digs around the site. I like the carved stone, particularly the figures and faces which link you directly to the masons who displayed their amazing skills (or in some cases not!):
Helmsley and Helmsley Castle
The small town of Helmsley has an attractive town square with many independent retailers. After spending some time shopping, we visited the castle, which is in the care of English Heritage.
Much of the castle was destroyed in the English Civil War, by Cromwell’s Army. It follows a Mott and Bailey design.
We spent the night on the long stay car park, which allows motorhome overnight stays with no charge between 6:30pm and 9:00am. Excellent, despite having no facilities except public toilets. We spent an enjoyable evening in the company of Wendy and Dave, who were able to join us as they are currently living nearby.
"See-u-Later" 