Fountains Abbey / River Skell, North Yorkshire
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
Situated in North Yorkshire, the 18th century designed landscape of Studley Royal water garden and pleasure grounds, including the ruins of Fountains Abbey, is one harmonious whole of buildings, gardens and landscapes. This landscape of exceptional merit and beauty represents over 800 years of human ambition, design and achievement.
Studley Royal Park is one of the few great 18th century gardens to survive substantially in its original form, and is one of the most spectacular water gardens in England. The landscape garden is an outstanding example of the development of the ‘English’ garden style throughout the 18th century, which influenced the rest of Europe. With the integration of the River Skell into the water gardens and the use of ‘borrowed’ vistas from the surrounding countryside, the design and layout of the gardens is determined by the form of the natural landscape, rather than being imposed upon it. The garden contains canals, ponds, cascades, lawns and hedges, with elegant garden buildings, gateways and statues. The Aislabies’ vision survives substantially in its original form, most famously in the spectacular view of the ruins of Fountains Abbey itself.
Fountains Abbey ruins is not only a key eye catcher in the garden scheme, but is of outstanding importance in its own right, being one of the few Cistercian houses to survive from the 12th century and providing an unrivalled picture of a great religious house in all its parts.
The remainder of the estate is no less significant. At the west end of the estate is the transitional Elizabethan/Jacobean Fountains Hall, partially built from reclaimed abbey stone. With its distinctive Elizabethan façade enhanced by a formal garden with shaped hedges, it is an outstanding example of its period.
Located in the extensive deer park is St Mary’s Church, a masterpiece of High Victorian Gothic architecture, designed by William Burges in 1871 and considered to be one of his finest works.
Criterion (i): Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey owes its originality and striking beauty to the fact that a humanised landscape was created around the largest medieval ruins in the United Kingdom. The use of these features, combined with the planning of the water garden itself, is a true masterpiece of human creative genius.
Criterion (iv): Combining the remains of the richest abbey in England, the Jacobean Fountains Hall, and Burges’s miniature neo-Gothic masterpiece of St Mary’s, with the water gardens and deer park into one harmonious whole, Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey illustrates the power of medieval monasticism and the taste and wealth of the European upper classes in the 18th century.
Fountains Abbey / River Skell, North Yorkshire
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
Situated in North Yorkshire, the 18th century designed landscape of Studley Royal water garden and pleasure grounds, including the ruins of Fountains Abbey, is one harmonious whole of buildings, gardens and landscapes. This landscape of exceptional merit and beauty represents over 800 years of human ambition, design and achievement.
Studley Royal Park is one of the few great 18th century gardens to survive substantially in its original form, and is one of the most spectacular water gardens in England. The landscape garden is an outstanding example of the development of the ‘English’ garden style throughout the 18th century, which influenced the rest of Europe. With the integration of the River Skell into the water gardens and the use of ‘borrowed’ vistas from the surrounding countryside, the design and layout of the gardens is determined by the form of the natural landscape, rather than being imposed upon it. The garden contains canals, ponds, cascades, lawns and hedges, with elegant garden buildings, gateways and statues. The Aislabies’ vision survives substantially in its original form, most famously in the spectacular view of the ruins of Fountains Abbey itself.
Fountains Abbey ruins is not only a key eye catcher in the garden scheme, but is of outstanding importance in its own right, being one of the few Cistercian houses to survive from the 12th century and providing an unrivalled picture of a great religious house in all its parts.
The remainder of the estate is no less significant. At the west end of the estate is the transitional Elizabethan/Jacobean Fountains Hall, partially built from reclaimed abbey stone. With its distinctive Elizabethan façade enhanced by a formal garden with shaped hedges, it is an outstanding example of its period.
Located in the extensive deer park is St Mary’s Church, a masterpiece of High Victorian Gothic architecture, designed by William Burges in 1871 and considered to be one of his finest works.
Criterion (i): Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey owes its originality and striking beauty to the fact that a humanised landscape was created around the largest medieval ruins in the United Kingdom. The use of these features, combined with the planning of the water garden itself, is a true masterpiece of human creative genius.
Criterion (iv): Combining the remains of the richest abbey in England, the Jacobean Fountains Hall, and Burges’s miniature neo-Gothic masterpiece of St Mary’s, with the water gardens and deer park into one harmonious whole, Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey illustrates the power of medieval monasticism and the taste and wealth of the European upper classes in the 18th century.