Mount Grace Priory

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Mount Grace Priory

Mount Grace Priory is the best preserved and most accessible of the ten Carthusian charterhouses in England. Founded in 1398, it was the last monastery established in Yorkshire before the Reformation, and an expression of the fashion for piety and strict living of the time. Unlike other monks, who lived in common, the Carthusians lived as hermits, each occupying his own cell (more like a small house), and coming together rarely in the chapel for certain prayers.

The priory was closed in 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries (by Henry VIII of England). The ruins of its guest-house were incorporated into two later houses: a seventeenth-century manor - a rare building of the Commonwealth period - and the larger house of the 1900-01, and important example of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Visitors today can see the layout of the whole monastery (albeit slightly worn), including one reconstructed monk's cell, together with the typically small Carthusian chapel and the later house. The gift shop located next to the entrance of the abbey contains many must-have memorabilia and souvenirs. Upstairs from the gift shop there is a museum dedicated to the priory, which gives masses of exceedingly well-written information about the priory (all you need to know about it in fact). However, even though it is now a tourist attraction, amidst the beautiful woodland, the priory is as tranquil today as it must have been 600 years ago.