Mount Grace Priory

Hidden in the North Yorkshire hills is Mount Grace Priory, the remains of a medieval religious house that was run by the Carthusian order of monks.  The ruins are managed by English Heritage and I first visited the place with Marion and Helen and Rowan the Dog many years ago.  It stayed in my mind very strongly because it seems to me a perfect place for solitary contemplation and a self contained life.

On the site were a number of individual houses where each monk would live.  These houses were placed around an open area in the centre of which was the church.  the monks would follow the offices and services throughout the day and night, leaving their own buildings to join together to sing and prayer but then they would return to their solitary home.

Although now just the remains, one of the houses was recreated to show wha it would have been like.  Downstairs are two rooms, a bedroom and a day room for prayer and eating.  Upstairs is a huge work room where each monk would have done whatever job they were good at - weaving, spinning, illuminating manuscripts and so on.  Outside each building had a short corridor to serve as a cloister looking out over the garden which would have been full of herbs and medicinal plants, vegetables and so on.  On the other side from the cloister was a corridor leading to a privvy and to the well.  How marvellously provided for were these monks.  They did not even have to produce their own food but they had it brough to them by lay men. They did not see these people as the food was brought to an L shaped hole in the wall by the door. 

When I first saw the houses I thought how beautifully contained they were, providing everything you would need and  I was reminded of this when I was recovering.  They seemed to me a perfect place for contemplation and meditation regardless of your particular beliefs.  As somewhere for a retreat for a period of time they would be wonderful.

This takes you to the wiki entry about Carthusians.