The North Yorkshire village built from the ruins of its own abbey

Almost every building standing in the North Yorkshire village today was built from what the monks left behind, and the houses sit directly on what was once the monastery’s inner court.

The village itself

Rievaulx, about 25 minutes east of Thirsk, is a hamlet of stone cottages enclosed by steep, heavily wooded hills in the valley of the River Rye.

The Cistercians – a Roman Catholic order of monks and nuns that originated in France – chose to settle in this spot in 1132 because it was remote and enclosed, suiting their rule of silence and separation from the world.

They then proceeded to transform it entirely: diverting the river to create flat ground, raising 72 buildings across 92 acres, and turning a narrow wooded valley into one of the great centres of medieval power in the north of England.

After the Dissolution, ironmasters built a blast furnace in the ruins and the abbey grounds became an industrial ironworking site for a century.

Then the stone was quarried and repurposed, and the village grew up around and on top of what remained.

The result is a settlement unlike almost anywhere else in Britain: a living community whose fabric is inseparable from the ruin it surrounds.

The abbey

Founded in March 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey in Burgundy, Rievaulx became the first Cistercian monastery in northern England and one of the most influential in Europe.

At its peak under Abbot Aelred in the 1160s it housed 140 monks and more than 500 lay brothers, founded 19 daughter abbeys, and grew enormously wealthy on wool exports reaching as far as Italy.

Aelred himself, born in Hexham in 1110 and raised at the court of King David I of Scotland, became abbot in 1147 and ran the community until his death in 1167. He was a theologian, diplomat and writer whose book On Spiritual Friendship remains in print today.

The west range of the monastery he knew, dating from 1135 to 1142, is the earliest surviving Cistercian building in Europe.

By the time Henry VIII dissolved it in December 1538, only 23 monks remained.

English Heritage manages the ruins and they are open daily from 10am to 5pm.

(Image: SUBMIT)

Rievaulx Terrace

On the ridge directly above the village, Rievaulx Terrace was created between 1749 and 1758 by Thomas Duncombe III as one of England’s earliest examples of Picturesque garden design.

The grass terrace follows a serpentine course along the escarpment, engineered to reveal 12 carefully framed views down to the abbey ruins in the valley below. A Palladian temple stands at each end.

Walking

A waymarked footpath connects Helmsley to Rievaulx through the wooded valley of the River Rye, taking around 50 minutes each way through some of the finest broadleaved woodland in the North York Moors.

Longer circular routes from the village take in the terrace, the moor above and ridgeline views across Ryedale.

Where to eat and drink

The on-site cafe at Rievaulx Abbey Cafe serves hot meals, sandwiches, homemade soup, cakes and scones, accessible without paying abbey admission.

Reviewers consistently single out the handmade cakes and the view of the ruins from the tearoom.

Mannion and Co in Helmsley, three miles south on the market square, is a well-regarded cafe and deli serving seasonal lunches and excellent coffee.

The Star Inn at Harome is a Michelin-starred resturant four miles from Rievaulx in the village of Harome.

Getting there

Rievaulx is in the North York Moors National Park, three kilometres north of Helmsley off the B1257.

The postcode for the abbey and village is YO62 5LB. There is parking on site at the abbey.