We celebrated the dry, sunny weather by making a circular tour of North Yorkshire, taking in a number of ancient churches and a ruined abbey in the vicinity of Richmond.
First was St Agatha’s church in the village of Gilling West. This 12th century church has been ‘improved’ several times since it was built but still retains its medieval simplicity.
Our next stop was Easby where there is a ruined abbey next to the church - also St Agatha’s and also 12th century. The church has beautiful 13th century wall paintings which were rediscovered in the 19th century. Presumably they were painted over at the time of the Dissolution and then were forgotten about.
From Easby we made our way across to Marske and another 12th century church, St Edmund’s. The church has lovely, white painted box pews.
Our final church was St Michael and All Angels at Downholme. Built in 1180, it is virtually untouched since the 15th century and retains much of its village church simplicity.
And so we meandered our way home, via Leyburn, Aysgarth, Hawes and Ingleton. A lovely day out - although the round-trip was about 130 miles on small roads so we were both fairly tired when we got home.