Ancient Sites of Yorkshire

[brian]

Here's a few recommended sites with links to generally excellent websites covering some of the ancient sites of Yorkshire I've visited, with short comment.

Anyway, feel free to add your own places/links.

Wharram Percy

Deceptively quiet looking, I've had some very powerful Shamanic experiences here. No ritual involved - just "tuning in". A very sensitive place well worth meditating in.

Rievaulx Abbey

Not just an extensively pretty site, this also has a strong vibe to it. I swear I could "feel" monks chating from the Chancery when I was there. Maybe it was just the wind...

Fountains Abbey

Not just pretty - but a World Heritage Site, as is StoneHenge and the Pyramids of Giza. Didn't notice a vibe, but it does make for a great day out in a very peaceful setting.

Duggleby

Really, just a bump of earth, but when I "felt" the place it had a very remote feel - as if it had been erected in forest, rather than on a plain. What the little article linked to doesn't state is that the burial site at Duggleby is actually older than the pyramids of Giza, with the earliest burial dating to around 3750 BC.

[Talia]

This is a good idea. I'll try to get around to compiling sites near where I live. I *love* the pictures of Rievaux Abbey. Have you been there?

[foundationist]

Rievaulx Abbey really is very nice - very extensive ruins, widespread site - plus set in a wooded valley among the Yorkshire Wolds. Very nice.

I think I'll have to think about taking the family there again this year. Long drive, but...ah, could be worth it if we pick a nice day.

[brian]

Just spent the day at Rievaulx Abbey - was planning to wait until next Saturday to take the family there as finances would be better - but this morning I was taken with an overwhelming urge to just go today.

Anyway, I figured we're probably coming to the end of a run of very good weather here in England, and more than likely it'll be pouring with rain next weekend. So we went.

Good call - English Heritage had two display groups booked in to cover that weekend. We had one giving a demonstration, and then talk, on mediaeval falconry. Then there was a two-person period music group - Hautbois - who over two sets covered a number of 15th century pieces.

Didn't realise until after we got back that it was actually the solstice today. Always intended to go to Rievaulx for that time of year sometime. A bit too hectic with two young children running around the ruins to stop and try and tune into the experience.

Still a nice day out. I took plenty of photos from hopeful angles, so if I get around to opening a history site in future I'll have plenty of pics for the Rievaulx page.