We were enjoying breakfast in our Airbnb when 2 workmen turned up in the back garden. There is no back fence at the moment and rubble and rubbish on one side so there’s obviously work in progress. Soon they had a jack hammer going and also cementing a paving stone outside the window. We phoned up the letting people who were a bit shocked like us and eventually the men packed up and left.

After breakfast we got in the car to head to Fountains Abbey in bright sunshine on a crisp autumn day. On the way we stopped at Ripon Cathedral which was stunning with a crypt from the 672 where St Wilfred originally had his chapel. The cathedral is a huge structure.

The screens and windows were all highly coloured.

The carving in the quire section was amazingly skilled. There are a lot of unusual features everywhere. These are probably 15th century.

There is a lot of history through the ages here.

This graveyard had been in a castle raided by religious soldiers who didn’t allow images of women – so they chopped her head off the stone carving. The detail on the knight’s chain mail was amazing.

We then had to quickly head off to Fountains Abbey to meet George and Lech who had beaten us there. We had a quick lunch and then headed off to check out the sights.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the trees were changing colour. We checked out the bird hide with bluetits, a squirrel and other small birds. There were quite a few pheasants there.

The first building to check out was Fountains Hall built in the 1600s by the new owner after the dissolution of the abbey in 1539 by Henry VIII.

It has a modern light installation based on the carving in the main hall.

2 children of the owners of the hall died in WWII and their parents created this memorial to them.

The next building was the Fountains Abbey ruin. The building would have been huge. The undercroft with the arches is amazing – very long and beautifully constructed.

We overheard the tour guide in an upstairs room. The only heated room in the building was where the large fire was – lit every year on 1st November and then extinguished on Good Friday. It went 24/7 between those dates. There was a history of blood letting in the abbey as they believed it was cleansing for the body. They did it 4 times a year. It would have been a hard life here!

We then continued to the Studley Water gardens set up in Victorian times as pleasure gardens. The large water channels would have been dug out by hand. There were many follies. Pheasants were running around everywhere.

There were also many water birds including a large number of geese.

We walked up to the end to the Valley of the Seven Bridges. We saw only 3 before we turned around.

On our way back we walked on the other side of the lake. George, Glenn and I walked up the hill to see the view from some lookouts while Lech and Helen took the bottom route.

We went through a dark tunnel to the upper path and got some spectacular views from the lookouts. The pheasants were even more numerous up here.

We couldn’t see any deer in the deer park – only cows.

We came back down the hill walking alongside the lake. We had a quick hot drink in the Studley cafe as they packed up around us. We then headed back past the abbey and up the hill to the visitors centre. The shadows were lengthening.

We were probably the last people leaving the visitor centre. We then enjoyed the drive through the sunny fields.

We got back to our Airbnb and I quickly put together a traybake and veg. George and Lech arrived and we had a lovely evening discussing the day and planning the next.

We all enjoyed George’s Betty’s Sticky Toffee Cake and cookies and cream ice cream. Betty’s tea rooms are a York institution.

We all went off to bed after a lot of walking today!