Rievaulx Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey near Helmsley in North Yorkshire.
The Abbey was founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey as a mission for the colonisation of the north of England and Scotland. It was the first Cistercian abbey in the north
It became one of the wealthiest abbeys in England until Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1538 Henry ordered the buildings to be rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead.
Its ruins are now a tourist attraction in the care of English Heritage.
Link (
Archive Link ) - English Heritage, Rievaulx Abbey