Christmas Charm & Historic Halls #6 :: Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal Water Gardens

Hi there everyone 😀

After our very busy day out visiting the city of York it was time for a bit of a foray out into the countryside and Fountains Abbey and the neighbouring Studley Water Gardens was on the cards.

The weather forecast had been a bit dodgy so far and we weren’t sure whether we would be able to visit … as none of us fancied it in the pouring rain … but we got so lucky with plenty of blue skies and sunshine.

We parked up at the West Gate car park with plans for us all to explore the abbey area and then for Martin and I to return to the car and drive to the Water Gardens car park, whilst Jackie and Phil made their way on foot.

We started our visit at Fountains Hall …

… where we managed to get a small fix of Christmas decorations …

… before continuing along the driveway towards the Abbey …

We decided to make our next stop the old watermill … which gave us great views back across to the Hall …

… and back across to the Abbey …

There was certainly plenty to see at the mill …

… and Martin and I couldn’t resist a bit of bell ringing practice …

We made our way down to the Abbey …

It’s in an absolutely beautiful spot and, once you get up close and personal, there was so much to see. It’s a huge site and, at its heyday was pretty much a totally self contained community, with all the accompanying buildings and accommodation that this would have entailed.

We spent a good while exploring and just trying to imagine how everything fit together back in the day … I took soooooo many photographs but have picked some of my favourites to share with you …

Once we’d seen all we could of the Abbey Jackie and Phil headed off for the Water Gardens and Martin and I headed back to the car … calling in at a small visitor centre on the way.

We had missed this on the way in but it really did make sense of all we’d seen with a potted history of the Abbey through the years and a really good scale model of the site as it would have been …

Finally we were ready to make our way to the Water Gardens car park, where we were greeted by this handsome chap …

By now there was some serious cloud building up …

… but the rain held off and there was still sunshine to be had …

We headed behind the cafe and across the small wooden footbridge … and alongside one of the huge pools …

… where we met back up with Jackie and Phil in a spot by the temple …

We made the most of the sunshine and warmed up with flasks of hot soup …

… before it was time to head back …

There was just time for a quick cuppa in the cafe before heading back to the car and Anthology Cottage.

Another lovely day out courtesy of the National Trust on the most glorious of Autumn days 😀

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Christmas Charm & Historic Halls #5 :: Treasurer’s House

Hi there everyone 😀

It’s back to York for today’s post … where our first stop of the day was the Treasurer’s House. It’s a lovely National Trust property, right in the heart of the city centre, in the shadow of the Minster …

Martin and I have visited once before … also at Christmas time, but it was a first time visit for Jackie & Phil. 

Once inside the volunteers made us all feel very welcome and told us a bit about this year’s Inspired Christmas displays.

This year the inspiration for the decorations in each room had been drawn from those who had owned and lived in the house across the years and, as well as being beautiful, it was really interesting to find out more about the history and the people and families that had lived here over the years.

It really had been decorated beautifully and felt very homely and Christmassy ... 

After a good wander around we found ourselves a cosy spot in the tea room for refreshments before heading back out into the rain to continue exploring the city.

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

A Festive Break in York #2 :: Around the City, Betty’s, a Christmas Market & Van Gogh

Hi there everyone 😀

Whilst we were staying up in Husthwaite with Jackie and Phil back in November we spent a couple of our days exploring York.

For our first we opted to use the park and ride from Rawcliffe Bar, which ended up working out quite well.

We had a full day on the cards … including a visit to the Treasurer’s House, another NT property, to maybe do a bit of Christmas shopping, an afternoon tea at Betty’s, a wander round The Shambles and the Christmas Market and finishing off with the Van Gogh immersive experience in St Mary’s Church.

The park and ride dropped us right outside the theatre … perfect for a quick toilet stop before heading through the city walls and around the side of the Minster for Treasurer’s House, which was to be our first stop …

I will tell you more about our visit to Treasurer’s House, which was another historic hall full of Christmas charm, in a separate post … but first we got to catch up with this very special bear along the way …

From Treasurer’s House we meandered the city centre streets towards the bottom of The Shambles … which didn’t seem quite as busy as it can be … there were still plenty of people about though … stopping to take in the window displays of the quirky shops and ancient buildings … 

We cut through to the market, where a little bit of sunshine put in an appearance …

… before carrying on with some general mooching about …

We were more than ready for a sit down out of the rain when it was time to head for Betty’s …

… where we whiled away a very civilised hour or so over a festive afternoon tea … and said “absolutely” to the offer of a sandwich top up …

When we came out of Betty’s it was beginning to get dark and everywhere looked just lovely with all the twinkling lights and Christmas decorations …

We made our way down Parliament Street and the Christmas Market …

It was now time to head for St Mary’s Church for our Van Gogh experience … which I was really excited about …

Though the city was busy we were actually the only people in the church and it really was an oasis of calm. With no idea whatsoever of what to expect we got comfortable and just sat back and enjoyed the show …

It really was a fabulous show … so different to anything any of us had seen before and definitely felt so immersive. It was very atmospheric in the empty church, surrounded by images constantly moving … at times it was hard to know where to look. It was also pretty poignant learning a bit more about Van Gogh and his personal struggles. 

It was a nice relaxing end to what had been a very full and enjoyable day. We had certainly crammed plenty in. All that was left to do was to head back through the city to catch our bus … which arrived pretty much just as we did. 

We were all certainly happy to hit the warm and comfort of Anthology Cottage for a very chilled out evening. 

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