There were high points and there were low points on this trip.Spending an entire day at Fountains Abbey was definitely one of the high points.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to Fountains Abbey on this trip. I’d been there before, when I made this trip last year. But I’d gotten there late in the afternoon that day, and by the time I’d patrolled the perimeter of the grounds, they were getting ready to close the joint and I never really did make it inside the ruin. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that the vaults of the Cellarium were one of the destinations that I’d meant to see…
So Saturday of my final weekend, I was in Yorkshire, about 35 mins from Fountains, and decided to head over there as early as I could, to get there as much as possible before the multitudes started to arrive.My timing was pretty good… I had no trouble photographing the Cellarium, the long vaulted chamber seen in the photo here; Then I availed myself to a guided tour of the grounds, which turned into a private tour when nobody else showed up.
The day just kept getting better from there. Instead of closing the grounds at 4:30 like they usually do, the park was left open well into the evening, and the ruins were illuminated with floodlights that got increasingly dramatic as the twilight settled in. I’ll have more of those photos to show in the weeks ahead.
But wait… that’s not all!
Not only were the ruins illuminated, but a live choir – the Elysian Singers of Yorkshire – performed a vocal concert in the Cellarium, with hundreds in attendance. It was a truly sublime conclusion to a long and fruitful day.
Previous posts from Fountains Abbey: The Concert in the Cellarium and The Couple In The Window.