Roche Abbey
Local highlightCistercian ruins in a wooded limestone valley in South Yorkshire, their setting later smoothed into a garden by Capability Brown
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
The two transepts of the church still stand to almost their full height, pale walls rising among the trees of a narrow limestone valley near Maltby. Roche Abbey was founded in 1147 by Cistercian monks — the order that chose remote country to live plainly and farm — and closed when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538. Most of the buildings came down then, but the ruin had an unusual second act: in the 1770s Capability Brown, working for the Earl of Scarbrough of nearby Sandbeck, landscaped the valley into a garden, turfing over foundations and shaping the stream and slopes around the surviving walls. English Heritage cares for it today. The site sits well off the main roads; Conisbrough Castle, with its famous round keep, is a reasonable drive north if you are making a day of the area.
More at the National Heritage List entry
