Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden

Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden is a World Heritage Site, best known for its ruin of a 12th-century Cistercian abbey (see the photo at left) and its Georgian water garden. Other attractions include a monastic water mill, an Elizabethan mansion and a Victorian church.

We concentrated our time first at the abbey and then in the gardens. Kassie enjoyed climbing over the ruins and exploring the various nooks and crannies of the abbey, so much so that we had to plead and cajole her to keep up with us during our long walk through the gardens. If not for the many footpaths, some hidden in wooded glens, others criss-crossing the canal, the various ponds and cascades, and especially the seats and follies hidden high on the sides of valleys and the temples secreted away in the woods, we may not have convinced her to carry on and ended our tour far too early. As it was, we did not have time to tour either Fountains Hall or St. Mary's Church.

Certainly Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden deserves a visit, perhaps more than one since the grounds are so immense. Perhaps we'll find another chance during our sojourn in the United Kingdom.

Date of Our Last Visit: October 2002