Mount Grace Priory, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Mount Grace Priory was built in 1398 for the Carthusian monks (a silent order). The Priory was dissolved by Henry VIII and a manor house was built around its ruins. In the 20th century it became an Arts and Crafts style county house. Today the house, priory ruins and gardens are open to visitors.

Address

Cleveland Way, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom

See all sites in North Yorkshire

Details

Founded: Middle Ages
Category: Religious sites in United Kingdom

More Information

www.english-heritage.org.uk
en.wikipedia.org
www.worldwidewriter.co.uk

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby

Merchant Adventurers' Hall (49,3 km)
City of Troy Maze, Dalby (31,9 km)

User Reviews

Matti Walker (2 years ago)
My little boy loved finding butterflies with the bug catching tools they provided! The priory is s really interesting place with a lot of history!

B Hepworth (2 years ago)
Wonderful place to spend a peaceful day out. Staff are very friendly and helpful. Nice new tea room and a beautiful setting for the house and priory. The gardens and pond were stunning. Very enjoyable visit! We'll be returning again.

annf williams (2 years ago)
Lovely old house, first impression was that it would make a beautiful watercolour ( I'm quite arty

Sean J Connolly (2 years ago)
Lovely hidden gem, English Heritage do an amazing job of looking after this place. We are actually National Trust members but you can get in at no cost for being an NT member. You get to see what life was like for these monks and when they say they spent their days living in solitude in a thing called a cell, its not anywhere near as bad as you think. Pay a visit and check it out. One thing to remember is parking is £1 and that goes both for English Heritage and NT members alike.

Leigh Edmondson (2 years ago)
We love Mount Grace Priory! It's perfect for curious kids who want to explore all the nooks and crannies. Lovely gardens, activities for the kids and a good coffee shop.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Giåm

Historic Site of the week

Glimmingehus

Glimmingehus is the best preserved medieval stronghold in Scandinavia. It was built 1499-1506, during an era when Scania formed a vital part of Denmark, and contains many defensive arrangements of the era, such as parapets, false doors and dead-end corridors, 'murder-holes' for pouring boiling pitch over the attackers, moats, drawbridges and various other forms of death traps to surprise trespassers and protect the nobles against peasant uprisings. The lower part of the castle's stone walls are 2.4 meters (94 inches) thick and the upper part 1.8 meters (71 inches).

Construction was started in 1499 by the Danish knight Jens Holgersen Ulfstand and stone-cutter-mason and architect Adam van Düren, a North German master who also worked on Lund Cathedral. Construction was completed in 1506.

Ulfstand was a councillor, nobleman and admiral serving under John I of Denmark and many objects have been uncovered during archeological excavations that demonstrate the extravagant lifestyle of the knight's family at Glimmingehus up until Ulfstand's death in 1523. Some of the most expensive objects for sale in Europe during this period, such as Venetian glass, painted glass from the Rhine district and Spanish ceramics have been found here. Evidence of the family's wealth can also be seen inside the stone fortress, where everyday comforts for the knight's family included hot air channels in the walls and bench seats in the window recesses. Although considered comfortable for its period, it has also been argued that Glimmingehus was an expression of "Knighthood nostalgia" and not considered opulent or progressive enough even to the knight's contemporaries and especially not to later generations of the Scanian nobility. Glimmingehus is thought to have served as a residential castle for only a few generations before being transformed into a storage facility for grain.

An order from Charles XI to the administrators of the Swedish dominion of Scania in 1676 to demolish the castle, in order to ensure that it would not fall into the hands of the Danish king during the Scanian War, could not be executed. A first attempt, in which 20 Scanian farmers were ordered to assist, proved unsuccessful. An additional force of 130 men were sent to Glimmingehus to execute the order in a second attempt. However, before they could carry out the order, a Danish-Dutch naval division arrived in Ystad, and the Swedes had to abandon the demolition attempts. Throughout the 18th century the castle was used as deposit for agricultural produce and in 1924 it was donated to the Swedish state. Today it is administered by the Swedish National Heritage Board.

On site there is a museum, medieval kitchen, shop and restaurant and coffee house. During summer time there are several guided tours daily. In local folklore, the castle is described as haunted by multiple ghosts and the tradition of storytelling inspired by the castle is continued in the summer events at the castle called "Strange stories and terrifying tales".

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Mount Grace Priory