YP Letters: Visit to Abbey needn't be lengthy pilgrimage

The nearest railway station to Kirkstall Abbey is Headingley.

I COMMEND Northern Rail’s advertisement in your Magazine’s travel section (The Yorkshire Post, September 16) encouraging people to visit places of interest by rail. One of these destinations is Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds.

Kirkstall Abbey is indeed “enchanting” and is one of the very best preserved Cistercian monastic ruins in the UK. A very interesting free Discovery Centre is situated in the lay brothers’ Reredorter. Its wooded parkland is a joy and the Abbey House Museum is situated in the Abbey’s former gatehouse, as is a great café.

But oh dear! The station recommended is Burley Park which is nowhere near the Abbey. The nearest station is Headingley, on Kirkstall Lane. Turn right out of the station down Kirkstall Lane and then right again at the traffic lights onto Morris Lane. Walk past St Stephen’s Church and School and along the ends of the streets called the Normans.

The road then opens out giving a wonderful view of Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey House Museum and up the Aire Valley to Rumbolds Moor. Walk as far as Abbey Walk and turn left down Abbey Walk and into the manicured Museum Gardens.