The small village of Rievaulx in the North York Moors has barely 15 houses built in what was once the abbey’s inner courtyard, and it remains close to the ruins today.

Much of the area’s land and properties are part of the Duncombe Park estate, meaning very few are in private ownership or come onto the market.

Rose Cottage’s sale is described as an ‘exclusive’ opportunity and although it requires extensive modernisation, it faces directly onto Rievaulx Abbey and there is also planning permission in place for a side extension to the ground floor.

The cottage is even protected by a covenant which prevents it being used as a holiday let. It stands in a generous plot with lawned garden.

Most of the houses in Rievaulx are built using stone from the abbey ruins, and the old watermill and miller’s cottage have both been converted for residential use – the former by an architect in the 1980s. The church, built in 1906, incorporates the gatehouse chapel for the abbey.

The mill itself continued its operations until 1962, and its staff lived in the village, alongside estate workers such as foresters and gamekeepers or those who farmed nearby.

There is a Methodist chapel, WI, and village hall, but the cricket pitch and pub have been lost. The Earl of Feversham built a school in 1845 but it had closed by 1962. The former prime minister Harold Wilson used to holiday in the village, and the town of Helmsley is just three miles away.

The three-bedroom property is for sale for £600,000 through agents Carter Jonas.

Period cottage in estate village in the grounds of Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire for sale - and it can't be converted into a holiday let