On K and R’s recommendation we headed back up the M1 heading for Foutains Abbey near Ripon, we were a bit worried that there might be a lot of traffic because the Great Yorkshire show was on near Harrogate. Fountains Abbey is a world heritage site and certainly deserves the accolade. Wikipedia says “Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately three miles south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield.”
We parked up in the two thirds empty car park, and walked to the entrance and information centre with National Trust shop. The site is vast and consists of the Abbey ruins a house and many acres of landscaped gardens with water features. The lanscapped gardens have large lakes with statues of greek gods. It was a short walk down hill to the abbey ruins, and we stopped at the mill cafe for a coffee and to grab some sandwiches for later. We wandered around the ruins taking it all in. There were plenty of people oj guided tours an I heard quite a few foreign languages clearly a popular tourist venue given the world heritage status.
Taking photo’s was quite a challenge even though I had my wide angled lens with me it is difficult to keep the verticals parallel whilst framing the picture well. I also took some panorama sets which I hope will prove popular on Google maps. We were also there in the middle of the day and the sun can prove to be a bit harsh and bright in July.
We wandered around the lakes stopping halfway for a rest and time to eat our sandwiches, sat on a bench while the world walked by. I left the GoPro on the bench arm taking a picture every 2 seconds for a timelapse to be stitched together at a later date. We stuck to the shade for the walk to the far end of the lakes as it was very warm in the sun. At the end we headed out the gates as we wanted to take the alternate route back via the church we had been recommended to us to take a look. We were not disappointed and I wished I had a tripod with me to take a panorama in the church. Note to self investigate good light weight and small tripods at a reasonable price.
I decided we should take the long way home across the dales. We headed west towards Pately Bridge, and drove through a heavy rain storm which saw torrents of rain running down the steep roads to the valleys at the bottom. The views after the rain had stopped were stunning, but we did not really have time to stop. I made a mistake and took the turn to Ilkley rather than Keithley which mean that we had to drive through Brighouse and Bradford and Huddersfiled to get home, and it was the rush hour to boot. The journey home took 2 hours compared t one hour to get there.
K treated us to Pizzas for tea.