Just up the road from Nunnington Hall is the Rievaulx (pronounced Ree-voh) area. There is a lot to see around this part of Ryedale and it's all beautiful! The Rievaulx Terrace walk was designed by a wealthy man who once owned all the land in this part of Ryedale. It was the fashion in the 18th Century to no longer have groomed gardens (like the ones at Nunnington Hall) but to have natural ones. So, this wealthy man (can't remember his name at the moment) spent all sorts of money to terrace a hillside overlooking the ruins of the Cistercian Monastery Reievaulx Abbey. He would invite his distinguished guests up to the terrace for the day and the ladies and gents, in their finest attire, would make the terrace walk (1 mile round trip).
The above shot of the charming wood is the first part of the walk. It was already lovely and green even with only the new little leaves on everything. I'll have to come back and experience it in the summer. The path slopes gently downwards and you come out of the wood fairly close to the Teutonic temple you see below.
I have no idea what this building was used for except that it was a nice thing to look at and and made everyone feel special because it was something imitating the past. One of the trends of these natural gardens was to have 'ruins' in them somewhere. So, maybe this temple represents the ruins.
The next part of the walk is on a level of smooth green lawn. When we were there the lawn was dotted with little white and blue flowers. As you proceed, you suddenly get glimpses of the Rievaulx Abbey ruins down below. The terrace walk is near the top of the hillside, so it's a substantial drop down to the abbey. It's quite a sight and I'm sure all of those ladies and gents enjoyed the view!
Imagine what it would look like when all of those trees have leaves on them. The intended effect was to give the walkers only glimpses of the Abbey as they made their way along the lawn. The glimpses get bigger and bigger as you proceed, so it's quite a nice touch.
And then, the final destination is the Ionic Temple. This temple has a nice sized dining room at the top of those stairs. It also has a kitchen underneath. Of course a good host would feed his distinguished guests a meal after their arduous mile long walk (my goodness!). There is plenty of room in that dining room for all sorts of mingling and socializing. Anyway, it's a lovely place and I enjoyed it very much, in spite of it's pretentiousness!
The above shot of the charming wood is the first part of the walk. It was already lovely and green even with only the new little leaves on everything. I'll have to come back and experience it in the summer. The path slopes gently downwards and you come out of the wood fairly close to the Teutonic temple you see below.
I have no idea what this building was used for except that it was a nice thing to look at and and made everyone feel special because it was something imitating the past. One of the trends of these natural gardens was to have 'ruins' in them somewhere. So, maybe this temple represents the ruins.
The next part of the walk is on a level of smooth green lawn. When we were there the lawn was dotted with little white and blue flowers. As you proceed, you suddenly get glimpses of the Rievaulx Abbey ruins down below. The terrace walk is near the top of the hillside, so it's a substantial drop down to the abbey. It's quite a sight and I'm sure all of those ladies and gents enjoyed the view!
Imagine what it would look like when all of those trees have leaves on them. The intended effect was to give the walkers only glimpses of the Abbey as they made their way along the lawn. The glimpses get bigger and bigger as you proceed, so it's quite a nice touch.
And then, the final destination is the Ionic Temple. This temple has a nice sized dining room at the top of those stairs. It also has a kitchen underneath. Of course a good host would feed his distinguished guests a meal after their arduous mile long walk (my goodness!). There is plenty of room in that dining room for all sorts of mingling and socializing. Anyway, it's a lovely place and I enjoyed it very much, in spite of it's pretentiousness!
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