A Yorkshire Post

With David's job he has to visit the company once a month in South Yorkshire and he would normally leave home very early one morning, stay overnight and return after working the next day.  This time we decided to do something different with his Yorkshire 'run' and stay for a weekend and take a day's holiday before he worked on Tuesday when we returned home in the evening.

We booked a hotel further north between York and Thirsk so travelled up stopping at Weedon (see my last post) which besides Bramble Patch, is also a convenient place to stop with pubs across the cross roads of 2 main roads and just a short distance from the M1.  The next day we decided to explore the Ryedale area and started with going to Thirsk, a very pretty market town, though for some reason never took photos.  Then our tour around old ruins Byland Abbey was not far.

I was fascinated by the way the plants have rooted themselves.  The middle photo shows some campanula (purple) flowers as well a yellow daisy like flowers which were quite a contrast to the stone walls.

And then I took photos of the tiled floors, looks very patchwork-y

Byland Abbey was built for a Cistercian order of monks who fled from Barrow in Cumbria in the 11th century. The abbey was destroyed after the reformation.  We then went onto the better known Rievaulx Abbey, where a different order of monks had set up their community. Again this is also a ruin, but nonetheless an impressive sight

After exploring and David taking more photos than I did we had lunch in the tea room there before going to Helmsley Castle.  Oh dear, more old ruins!  By this time we were trying to dodge some showers so some of these were taken while it was raining or afterwards

 These sculptures were outside the castle

 A ruined bailey tower

Most of the main building was intact, apart from the tower on the left.

 These keys were in a glass case (hence the reflection of the flash) but I liked the shapes on them

I rather liked the design above the fireplace in the great hall.

We had a wander around Helmsley town, enjoyed a lovely ice cream, locally made.  We then made our way back to the hotel and passed through a storm and really heavy rain but on our way we found a sign that said "Model Railway" through a village, Gilling.  David drove down this little lane until we came across what looked like an old school building or it could be the village hall.  The outdoor railway is run by the Rydale Society of Model Engineers and I found there website here.  There was a party in the hall and the children were offered rides and there was one driver with a goods train

What a find in the middle of the countryside!  Even the rain stopped when we got there.