With a Yorkshire holiday planed, we, of course, had to head up a day early to get in a new parkun destination. One that has long been on our list was Fountains Abbey parkrun often lauded as “UK’s most beautiful parkrun”. Having already visited Trentham Gardens parkrun, we were keen to see how it compared.
Watch our Fountains Abbey parkrun adventure
We camped in Abbey Falls, a pop-up campsite, which overlooked the abbey meaning we could walk from our tent in the morning to the parkrun start, some helpful cleaning staff let us through the back entrance making the walk even shorter!
The parkrun starts right by the Abbey and the scene as you start your run is breathtaking. Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 by Benedictine monks from York looking for a simpler life. It became wealthy through wool production, lead mining, cattle rearing, horse breeding and stone quarrying. Facing tough times in the 1300s with raids from Scotland and the black death it continued till 1539 when it was seized by the crown under the Dissolution of the Monasteries ordered by Henry VIII. It slowly fell to ruin as the stone was raided to build other nearby dwellings such as Fountains Hall.
The first lap is a shorter lap, and returns on the other side of the ruins. The second, longer lap takes you out through Studley Royal Water Garden, the vision of John Aislabie and his son William who turned the wild and wooded valley of the River Skell into one of England’s most spectacular Georgian water gardens.
The first timer’s briefing and the website description use the word “flat”, but it’s definitely “Yorkshire Flat”, I would definitely use the adjective “Undulating” but the scenes are you run round are spectacular and it certainly deserves its place in the beautiful parkruns hall of fame.
parkrun done, it’s time to exit the grounds and find the visitor centre restaurant, where we fueled up on breakfast rolls and coffee (for Ruth and I) before using our National Trust membership to head back in and explore the Abbey further. The main transept of the Abbey towers above you but now open to the skies while the undercrofts are a must-visit. Then it was back to the Water Garden to find the Serpentine tunnel designed to give guests a gentle fright on their way up to the Octogon Tower and High Ride.
Grounds explored we headed back to our campsite, but not before a last spot to explore, the mill whose wheel has been turning for almost a 1000 years and in the last century has been converted to generate electricity.
Another fabulous day of parkrun and National Trust tourism, visiting a truly amazing and beautiful place.
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