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Byland Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in the twelfth century in North Yorkshire, established by monks from Furness Abbey who relocated to this location in 1177. The site preserves substantial remains of the monastic precinct, including the characteristic water-management earthworks and artificial channels engineered to serve the community's practical and spiritual needs, along with the foundations and earthwork traces of ancillary buildings and service structures typical of a major Cistercian establishment. Archaeological and standing remains evidence the quarries and stone-working operations that supplied the abbey's construction, reflecting the scale and ambition of the monastery's architectural programme. The abbey, which operated until its dissolution in the sixteenth century, ranks amongst the significant Cistercian houses of northern England, and the surviving earthworks and fragmentary structures remain important testimony to medieval monastic organisation and landscape management.
Byland Abbey Cistercian monastery: monastic precinct, water-management earthworks, enclosures, ancillary buildings and quarries is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1013403. View the official record →
Byland Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in the twelfth century in North Yorkshire, established by monks from Furness Abbey who relocated to this location in 1177. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1013403.
Byland Abbey Cistercian monastery: monastic precinct, water-management earthworks, enclosures, ancillary buildings and quarries is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1013403.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Round barrow 150m north of Wombwell Arms (5.8 km), Round barrow 50m east of Windyridge Farm (6 km), Round barrow 50m south east of Windyridge Farm (6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Byland Abbey Cistercian monastery: monastic precinct, water-management earthworks, enclosures, ancillary buildings and quarries's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Byland Abbey Cistercian monastery: monastic precinct, water-management earthworks, enclosures, ancillary buildings and quarries stands on West Walton Formation, Ampthill Clay Formation And Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Kimmeridgian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.