Helen Stephenson's Yorkshire Holiday Pictures - October, 2007 - Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden

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Grewelthorpe is close to Ripon, which in turn is near to the site of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden. The ruins of the Cistercian abbey and the Georgian water gardens are part of the same National Trust estate. We visited on the first full day of our holiday as it was nice and local and I didn't have to drive too far after coming up from London the day before. We joined the National Trust for a year when we visited and can now visit any NT estate we wish without having to pay anything more until October 2008.

These pictures were captured using a Pentax K10D digital SLR camera.

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The first view of the Abbey is the top of the tower, just showing through the surrounding trees. The walk down to the Abbey also goes past a stand of conifers.



I spent quite a bit of time trying to get this pheasant to pose for me, but he wanted to stay just out of lens range. It was also quite a dully day, which just added to my problems. This picture isn't very sharp, but it was the best that I managed.



There were plenty of ruins apart from the main Abbey building, and we had an enjoyable time walking around among them.



The next picture is one of my favourites, showing people enjoying the grounds and the stream, with the Abbey as a slightly hazy backdrop. Sometimes when it isn't very bright outside, you can get a result like this. I really ought to try this in monochrome, too.



We walked up the the old mill buildings, and were able to enjoy a flower garden along the banks of the stream which flows through the Fountains Abbey site.





This picture of the Cellarium is another of my very favourite pictures from my visit to Fountains Abbey. It did require a little work in PhotoShop to get it into this condition, but the anti-shake system on the camera did a very good job in subdued lighting conditions to give me the material to work with.



These pictures were taken in and around the main Abbey building.



		There is a well-preserved aisle running down the north of the nave, and the remains of a chapel at the north east.

At the east end of the nave, there is a well preserved area of mosaic flooring.





We then left the Abbey to follow the stream towards the Studley Royal Water Garden. As the garden is Georgian, and therefore much later than the Abbey, it could be designed to take advantage of views of the Abbey, and the next two pictures demonstrate this.



The willow proved photogenic, and I included it in several shots. The third shot demonstrates the success of have an "RPS" - which stands for Red Person Somewhere.



		The next two pictures are very green!.

The fungus was growing at the root of a tree. I popped up the flash to take it.



Here are some of the lakes in the landscape. There are many classical figures spread among them. I've captured Neptune here. There were also numerous follies dotted about, but I seem to have omitted to photography those!





	We completed our circuit of the water garden and passed back by the Abbey on our way to the exit.