Jervaulx Abbey

Jervaulx Abbey stands in the quiet valley of the River Ure, near East Witton in North Yorkshire. The Cistercian monks first built here in the 12th century, naming the place after the valley they called Jorvalle, meaning ‘the Ure valley’. Once one of Yorkshire’s great abbeys, it was dedicated to St Mary in 1156 and became famous for breeding horses and making Wensleydale cheese. The abbey owned half the valley at its height and was closely linked to Byland Abbey in its early years. Its history includes the murder of Abbot Philip in 1279 and the execution of the last abbot after the Pilgrimage of Grace. The ruins show how the monks lived and worshipped across two centuries. The church, once 270 feet long, has mostly vanished, but its south-west door and side altar survive. The cloister once stood to the south, surrounded by the chapter house, parlour, slype and dormitory. The chapter house, where monks met daily, still has its vaulted aisles and large windows. The monks’ infirmary had fine traceried windows and a chapel, while the lay brothers lived in a separate west range with their own refectory and dormitory. Today the abbey remains lie within a garden landscape, still partly covered in wild plants. Visitors can see the grand arched doorway of the slype, the lancet windows of the dormitory and the drainage channel of the latrines. The abbot’s later house, built from the old infirmary, shows how monastic life changed in the later Middle Ages. The standing walls and columns tell the story of a once-powerful community now returned to the quiet of the Wensleydale countryside.