Fountains Abbey cellarium, North Yorkshire

Aglow at the abbey. Fountains Abbey

It’s centuries since the chanting of monks echoed through this ruined Cistercian monastery, but in December, you can hear carols within its ancient walls. The vaulted ceilings of the cellarium at Fountains Abbey also provide the canvas for a festive lightshow here in North Yorkshire. The remains of this magnificent building, part of a wider Unesco World Heritage Site, are among the largest and best-preserved medieval ruins in the UK.

Founded in 1132 by monks seeking a simpler life, Fountains Abbey grew into one of the largest and richest Cistercian abbeys in Britain, thanks to the skills of the lay brothers – labourers who helped with less spiritual tasks like wool production, quarrying and cattle rearing. Those lay brothers slept in a dormitory above the arches in our homepage image which held up the cellarium, a sort of larder and dining room. Fountains Abbey survived four centuries through bad harvests, raids and even the Black Death. But it would meet its end in 1539, during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. Today, its towering ruins offer a glimpse back in time into life in a powerful monastic house in medieval England.