Fountains Abbey is the largest monastic ruin in Britain, and it stands in a valley so green and quiet that it hardly seems real. In 1132, a group of Benedictine monks, dissatisfied with the lax life at York, left their abbey and sought a stricter rule, and with the help of the archbishop, they settled in this remote valley beside the river Skell. They became Cistercians, and over the next four centuries the abbey grew rich on sheep and wool, building a huge church, a vaulted cellarium, and a tower that still rises above the ruins. Henry VIII dissolved the abbey in 1539, and the roofs were stripped for lead.
Two centuries later, John Aislabie, a politician who had been disgraced in the South Sea Bubble, turned the valley next to it into a garden. Studley Royal, laid out from 1718, with straight canals, a crescent pond, temples, cascades and carefully framed views of the abbey, is one of the finest surviving water gardens in England, and his son William extended it. The abbey and the garden together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1986, and now cared for by the National Trust, with a deer park of fallow and red deer.
The nearby city of Ripon, about four kilometres away, has a small, atmospheric cathedral and a market square where a hornblower sounds a horn every evening at nine o'clock, a custom that goes back centuries. It has fuel and plenty of pubs and tea shops. Fountains is busy on summer weekends, so go early or late in the day. The grounds are large, and a visit takes a few hours.
The riding around is a joy. To the west lie Nidderdale and the Yorkshire Dales, with long climbs, open moorland, stone walls and hamlets, and to the east lies the flat Vale of York. Roads are often narrow, with cattle grids and sheep, and weekends bring plenty of fellow riders. Spring and autumn are most beautiful, and on misty mornings the ruins seem to float. A pot of tea and a scone in the courtyard is the proper ending.