A Cistercian ruin in the North York Moors, its west front still framing the base of an enormous rose window
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
The monks who ended up at Byland were Cistercians — an order that split off to live more simply and farm remote land themselves — and it took them several moves over some decades in the 12th century before they settled on this spot below the Hambleton Hills. What they built was one of the largest churches of its kind in the country, and the great west front still stands almost to its full height, with the lower half of a huge rose window as its centrepiece; you can see the curve where the circle once sprang from the stone. Inside, laid across the floor of the church, are broad panels of medieval glazed tiles in green and cream, among the best-preserved anywhere in Britain. Henry VIII’s closure of the monasteries in the 1530s ended it, and the rest fell to a ruin of low walls and grassy foundations, looked after now by English Heritage. Byland stands just off the road in quiet farmland within the North York Moors, with The Abbey Inn directly opposite for lunch, and Rievaulx Abbey, its grander Cistercian neighbour, a few miles north.
More at the National Heritage List entry
