It may come as a surprise to a few but I do have an “O” level (GCSE) in History. Some of you might say that it’s ancient history when I got that but I’ve always loved history.

I was looking out on when the National Trust and English Heritage would open up again after Covid, and it’s slowly starting to happen. It’s a slow process and most of the castles, houses etc all need to be booked in advance. This is a good thing at the moment and on one level it does allow for more time to look around the sites with less people to get in the way.

Rievaulx Abbey Visit

I’ve had my eye on this for some time, after last years visit to Helmsley. It was very fortuitous that an email arrived the night before which told me there was limited availability, a few clicks later and I had a ticket for 2pm the next day.

The trip there was very uneventful but my plan to have a nice lunch in the main square at Helmsley was scuppered by around 100 bikers who also had designs on a nice lunch in Helmsley.

I was impressed with the arrangements for social distancing and how the staff had everything organised. Masks required inside the visitors centre but not whilst outside in the Abbey itself.

As I walked out of the visitors centre I was struck by how much of the Abbey was still standing. There is such a lot to see and it took me a good few hours to walk around the whole site.

I decided it wasn’t right to take my full camera kit and tripod, so I was armed with my Sony RX100 mIII. This small bit of kit packs a big performance punch and it produces excellent image quality.

The design and build of the Abbey reminded me of Whitby Abbey and there are lots of lines and symmetrical shapes that must have been passed along in some way all those years ago.

It really was good to walk around and take photographs without having to worry about people constantly walking into shot. In the time I was there this didn’t happen once. I’m not sure this will last post covid though.

I’ve had a small experiment with black and white images in recent weeks and it struck me that the contrast between the sky and the buildings would make for a good black and white image. I think you’ll agree that this image works well as a black and white image.

I’m sure there is lots of maintenance done on a regular basis, but the walls that are still standing look very sturdy indeed. Being open to the elements also means that algae etc will grow on the exposed masonry. It makes some lovely colours for sure.

I would definitely recommend anyone with an interest in history visit this Abbey. There’s such a lot to see and the visitors centre sell wonderful cakes to!