Around Fountains Abbey

After you have climbed the hill from the car park and begun the walk along the valley side, following the ancient abbey wall, the south front of Fountains Hall is below you. Built by Sir Stephen Proctor in 1611, it is a fine Jacobean house with lots of mullioned windows and cross gables. Were it anywhere other than at the entrance to Fountains Abbey, it would be seen as one of the great houses of the age. Sir Stephen was, by all accounts, not the most scrupulous of men, having made his huge fortune as Collector of Fines on Penal Statutes. Nor did he respect the abbey buildings; the stone he built his house with was taken from the southeast corner of the monastic remains.

Abbey and Abbot

A little further along the path, the abbey ruins come into view. When monks from St Mary's Abbey in York first settled here in 1132, it was a wild and desolate place. Nevertheless their abbey prospered, and became one of the country's richest and most powerful Cistercian monasteries. More remains of Fountains than of any other abbey ruin in the country. Its church was 360ft (110m) long. The other buildings, laid out along (and over) the River Skell, give a vivid impression of what life was like here in the Middle Ages. All came to an end in 1539 when King Henry VIII dissolved the larger monasteries. This was only a few years after Abbot Marmaduke Huby had built the huge tower, a symbol of what he believed was the enduring power of his abbey.

Mr Aislabie's Garden

Beyond Fountains Abbey is the Water Garden laid out between 1716 and 1781 by John Aislabie and his son William. John had retired to his estate here at Studley Royal after being involved – as Chancellor of the Exchequer – in the financial scandal of the South Sea Bubble. It is one of the great gardens of Europe, contrasting green lawn with stretches of water, both formal and informal. Carefully placed in the landscape are ornamental buildings, from classical temples to Gothic towers. The Aislabie's mansion stood at the north end of the park; it was destroyed by fire in 1945. The highlight of the southern end of the walk is Markenfield Hall, a rare early 14th-century fortified manor house, built around 1310 for the Markenfield family. You can see the tomb of Sir Thomas Markenfield and his wife Dionisia in Ripon Cathedral.

Open for four weeks in the summer, the house still clearly demonstrates how a medieval knight and his family lived; it is part home, part farm. You can see the chapel and the great hall. The gatehouse, convincingly medieval, is 200 years younger than the house.

From West Gate car park turn right uphill, signed 'Harrogate'. At the fork go left, signed 'Markington, Harrogate'. Just after the road bends right, go left at a bridleway sign through a gate.

Follow the grassy path just inside the ancient abbey wall, past a small pond. Go through a waymarked gate and follow the track as it curves round to the right through another gate, then bend left to a gate into Hill House Farm.

Turn right then follow the bridleway signs to go left at the end of a large shed and then right. Go through a metal gate onto a track. At the end of the hedge go ahead down the field to a gate into the wood. Follow the track, passing a ruined archway, to descend to a crossroads of tracks.

Go straight across. The track climbs to a gate with a bridleway sign. Follow the track beside the line of trees to a gate onto Whitcliffe Lane. Turn right. At the top of the rise go straight ahead on the metalled road.

Go over the cattle grid by Bland Close, then leave the lane to go straight ahead with the hedge on your right to a gateway. Continue through a gate along the waymarked track, eventually with woodland to your right. Follow the park wall through a gateway to reach a gate onto a lane. Turn right to reach some farm buildings by Markenfield Hall.

Follow the wall to the left, and bend left to go through a waymarked metal gate and straight ahead down the track, over a stile by a gate. Follow the track, then a waymarker sign, across a field to a stile by a gate. Turn right up the narrow Strait Lane, to emerge into a field.

Follow the waymarked path beside the hedge. Go through a gate in the field corner and continue ahead with the hedge to the right. After the next gate, bear half right to go through another gate. After the next field, do not go through, but bend left through a hedge gap and down the field side, with the hedge on your right, to go through a gate onto Whitcliffe Lane.

Turn left and follow the lane, which leads in the direction of How Hill Tower, an 18th-century folly, to a T-junction. Turn right here and follow the road back to the car park.