Our weekend in North Yorkshire

The Flyrights

After our evening meal we went to the theatre to wait for the Flyrights to begin their sets. We had already seen them perform on P&O Aurora. This evening they would be backed their own band.

After acts from the in-house Warner’s team we had a front seat view of their performance. The audience joined us dancing in front of the low stage and this gave me even more opportunities to get my shots.

Here are more images from the Flyrights’ performance. (TBA)

Fountains Abbey

After breakfast on Sunday we decided to visit Fountains Abbey which was less than 9 miles away to the North. This was an Abbey that I had never been to but had heard lots about its size and importance before its destruction. After parking we walked down into a valley and called at one of the Abbey’s farms to understand more about the economics of the time. The Abbey had literally thousands of sheep scattered about the region from as far as the North Yorkshire coast up to the Lake Distric. The wool from these sheep brought the Abbey great wealth.

Walking down the path we had out first glimpse of the Abbey’s tower – Huby’s Tower.

As we came nearer to the ruin I was staggered at just how large the Abbey was. This was only reinforced as we walked around the Abbey and through the ruins.

The Abbey had had many buildings built over tunnels that carried the River Skell under them.

The Cellarium was amazing. This was the ground floor and had the floor of the dormitory that had been above as a roof.

We walked past the remains of the guesthouses to find the small cafe by Fountains Mill.

Looking back at the Abbey the Cellarium is the long building at the front on the right.

Inside the cafe there were only a few tables inside and we managed to find one in a corner for a sit and to get warm as we drank our tea.

Studley Royal

After our break we walked back towards the Abbey and after passing the tower we carried on walking into the Studley Royal water garden. The ponds and cascades were to our right below us.

After passing all the ponds we came to another entrance and left the gardens to walk around the largest pond. Our original plan was to go up into areas of the park above us where we had been told there were deer. As we followed the path into the even Bridges Valley we met a lady with a dog. She told us just how deep the mud was up there and we turned around and walked back round the pond. We had to show our National Trust cards again to enter at the gate. We followed the inside path until we came to the water cascade that fed into the large pond. Across the cascade was a narrow (modern) footbridge.

We then followed the path back towards the Abbey. We passed one of the parks follies, the Temple of Piety, before we could see another, the Temple of Fame, above us.

To our right we were passing again all the ponds of the water gardenns. A lot of waork was going on to restore the gardens to their former glory with lots of hedges being planted. After we passed the Half Moon reservoir we again were at the side of the River Skell.

Around the bend we had a different view of the Abbey.

The river had had its banks reinforced with stone walls as we approached the Abbey. Then the path went up the side of the valley and we had fantastic views looking down on the Abbey. Now it was possible to see just how big the ruins are and to imagine just how big the Abbey had been.

The only building to have been spared was Fountains Mill. I took a short diversion to go inside and see the mill races and the remaining water wheel.

Last evening at Nidd Hall

After dinner we went to see another performance from the in-house entertainers and witnessed a hypnotists working on volunteers from the audience. We all stayed firmly in our seats.