Picture Post: Rolling hills conceal rich seam of natural history

Close to Rosedale Abbey, which was once home to a Cistercian priory, all that is left today is a staircase, a sundial and a single stone pillar.

The North York Moors was the setting for many religious communities and the priory at Rosedale, which was founded in 1158, was home to a small group of nuns. While prayer was their priority, these women were also business savvy and have been credited as the first people to farm sheep commercially in the region.

After almost 400 years of continuous use, in 1535 the building was one of hundreds which fell victim to Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The nuns fled, the priory’s various treasurers were confiscated and as it lay empty the priory quickly began to deteriorate.

While the nuns of other abbeys like Jervaulx and Rievaulx now stand as impressive reminders of a bygone age, the priory at Rosedale was almost airbrushed out of history when the bricks and mortar were dismantled in the 19th century and the stone reclaimed for building – some of the original priory stones were used for a new church building which stands on the same site.

As the ramblers on this photograph would no doubt attest, it is possible to spend hours wandering the moors around Rosedale without seeing another person. It wasn’t always that way.

In the 19th century, the area was the centre of the iron ore mining industry and the promise of jobs and regular income saw the population of the valley expand rapidly and saw the building of a railway which ran round the head of the valley, serving the mine workings on either side.

The industry continued until the 1920s when most of the mines were closed and now many of the cottages which once belonged to miners and their families are now used as holiday homes.

Technical details: Nikon D3s 28-70mm lens 320th F6.3, 160ISO.