Rievaulx Abbey

I had a busy night, first of all trying to persuade my mother that it was a good idea for me to be dating David Bowie, then in my role as a journalist, dashing about trying to find a quick way in the crowds to the Scottish Parliament where UDI was being declared. The latter is easily explained as I must have been channeling my inner Louise Bryant, having fallen asleep listening to “Ten Days that Shook the World”.

We had a good day. After picking up the Guardian in Helmsley we drove to the very impressive Rievaulx Abbey. It nestled in a narrow wooded valley and was one of the largest Cistercian Abbeys, at one time housing over 600 monks.

I found some of the English Heritage information boards puzzling. The monastery was founded in 12th century and “suppressed” (I had known it is the dissolution) by Henry VIII, one of the reasons being that he thought the religion was “too superstitious”. I am not very knowledgeable about English history as we did Scottish, British, Ancient Greek and Modern European at school, and know even less about the RC and Church of England though I did think their beliefs and practices did not differ much. Another bit of information said that the building had been “plundered” by “Marauding Scots” in 14th century. Sounds a lot worse than “suppression“ when the place was left in the state you see in the blip.

One of the most revered Abbots was Aelred, now a saint. Apparently he had close relationships with men before he became a monk but became totally chaste afterwards, despite taking a keen interest in the welfare of the young novices. As we say in the Borders, with a sceptical raised eyebrow “Aye right”.

We drove the few miles back up the road to our little camp site and after a sandwich we set off walking straight from the van for 5.5 miles on the North York Moors. We were high up with the vista of the Vale of Pickering to the south and most of the moors on the north. Several skeins of geese were calling as the headed NW.