Rievaulx Abbey

Rievaulx Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park. Headed by the Abbot of Rievaulx, it was one of the wealthiest abbeys in England until it was dissolved by Henry VIII of England in 1538. 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. With time it became one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire. Its remote location was ideal for the Cistercians, whose desire was to follow a strict life of prayer and self-sufficiency with little contact with the outside world.