Best Other in North Yorkshire, England - Map and Reviews

Rievaulx Terrace is one of the most elegant and evocative landscaped features in the whole of Yorkshire, a sweeping grass terrace owned and managed by the National Trust that stretches for approximately half a mile along a ridge above the valley of the River Rye in the North York Moors National Park. What makes it extraordinary is the theatrical relationship between the carefully designed terrace walk and the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey far below — the terrace was constructed not as a garden in the conventional sense, but as a stage set for viewing one of England's greatest medieval ruins at a series of perfectly composed angles. This is designed landscape as pure drama, and few places in the country achieve a similar effect so successfully. The terrace was created between around 1758 and 1765 by Thomas Duncombe III of nearby Duncombe Park, as an addition to the earlier Duncombe Park terrace built by his grandfather. The younger Thomas shaped the ridge into a broad, gently curving lawn edged with woodland, running along the natural contour of the hillside so that walkers moving along it are presented with fourteen distinct views down through breaks in the trees to the roofless nave, transepts and surviving arches of the twelfth-century Cistercian abbey below. It was designed entirely for pleasure and aesthetic contemplation, an open-air gallery of ruins, and it reflects the mid-eighteenth century English obsession with the picturesque — the idea that landscape could be composed and appreciated like a painting. At each end of the terrace stands a classical temple, both of which still survive in excellent condition and add enormously to the character of the walk. The Ionic Temple at the southern end is the more elaborate of the two, containing a beautifully decorated interior with ornate plasterwork ceilings, painted medallions and original period furniture, which is open to visitors and gives a vivid sense of how the Georgian gentry used these garden buildings for entertainment, contemplation and dining in stylish comfort. The smaller Tuscan Temple at the northern end is simpler and more austere but commands an equally magnificent view over the abbey ruins. Together they bracket the promenade and give it a sense of architectural purpose that lifts it well above an ordinary woodland walk. In person, the terrace has a distinctly otherworldly quality that is hard to fully anticipate from photographs or descriptions. The great sweep of open grass, flanked by dense mixed woodland that filters the light and amplifies birdsong, creates an atmosphere of serene isolation even when other visitors are present. As you walk southward, the valley opens and closes through the trees, and the grey limestone arches of the abbey appear and disappear in a sequence of increasingly dramatic compositions. On a clear autumn morning in particular, with low sunlight slanting across the valley and mist sometimes filling the lower ground, the effect is breath-taking and almost melancholy in its beauty. The ground underfoot is firm grass for most of the year, though the wooded fringes can be damp. The abbey itself — Rievaulx Abbey — is one of the finest Cistercian monastic ruins in Europe, founded in 1132 by Walter l'Espec as the first Cistercian house in the north of England, and at its height home to over 650 monks and lay brothers. It is managed by English Heritage and lies in the valley below, accessible by a separate entrance and well worth visiting in its own right. The two sites together — terrace above, ruins below — form one of the most complete experiences of English landscape history available anywhere, combining medieval monasticism with Georgian aesthetics in a single valley. The nearby village of Helmsley, about two and a half miles to the southeast, offers accommodation, pubs, cafes and its own ruined castle, and makes an excellent base for exploring this corner of the North York Moors. Getting to Rievaulx Terrace requires either a car or some advance planning. There is a small National Trust car park at the site, reached by following the B1257 north from Helmsley and then taking the lane signposted for Rievaulx. The road is narrow in places and care is required. No direct bus service runs to the terrace itself, though Helmsley is served by buses from Thirsk and other nearby towns. The site is open to National Trust members free of charge, and there is an admission fee for non-members. The terrace path is a relatively gentle gradient and accessible to most reasonably mobile visitors, though the grass surface and some slopes may present difficulty for pushchairs or wheelchairs in wet conditions. Dogs are welcome on leads. The best times to visit are arguably late spring, when bluebells carpet sections of the woodland edge and the green of the valley is at its most vivid, and autumn, when the woodland turns gold and russet and the low angle of the sun creates the most dramatic lighting over the ruins. Midsummer visits are also rewarding, with longer opening hours and the terrace at its most lush, though the valley can be hazy. Winter visits are permitted on selected days and offer an entirely different and more austere experience of the place. Throughout the year the terrace retains its extraordinary sense of remove from the everyday world — a place that was designed two and a half centuries ago specifically to make the visitor feel transported, and still does so with remarkable success.