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Fountains Abbey from Ripon Cathedral Pilgrimage Boxing Day 2018 with Bishop Dr Hilary-Ann Hartley
I arrive at Ripon and set off walking from just outside the Ripon Inn (Spa Hotel) at 10.17. I have estimated the official pilgrimage will be starting just after 10.15 from the cathedral.
.. I am now quite happy to have a section "warming up" at a leisurely pace. There are other small groups of people doing the same. At the road crossing into the fields just beyond the roundabout at the River Laver there are two yellow jacketed marshals guiding us across. A car draws up and Loretta Williams arrives there maybe come to help marshal. It was good to see her - she stars, in some of my earlier pictures walking. e.g. 2011 - in her red jacket.
Just before Studley Royal I photograph the Small-Leaved Lime tree. This one may not be 1000 or 2000 years old like some small leaved limes, but it is old.
There are no refreshments at Studley Roger this year.
I photograph a field of beet just beyond Studley Roger - Maybe this is just before reseeding with improved grass seed next year.
Once in the park proper I photograph a fine Sweet Chestnut tree near the entrance.
Then a small group or three teenagers and a few more people whizzed in carrying a white cross. But no-one following. Was this the official pilgrimage? Where was everyone else?
I ran and caught them up, and persuaded them to wait for the rest of the pilgrimage. About 5 minutes later it arrived, led by Bishop Anna. (Third from left in the picture below)
Behind the cross you should be able to see see some big trunks on the ground. They may be some of the trunks left from the BIG storm of Feb 1962 when lots of the old Sweet Chestnut trees blew down.
I remember that storm. I had to take the equivalent of the 11-plus that year. Our teacher Mr Wardall had been trying to teach us about the countries in the EEC as the UK was applying to join, and he thought they might give us an essay on this. I found it hard learning the names of these (then only) eight countries. In the end the subject they gave us to write about was the big storm. What a relief.
I took a short cut, considerably lengthened by looking at some lichens on trees and watched the procession descend towards the lake a Studley. I once came here as a young teenager myself, proud to be with my brothers friends, with the Howe family, sledging down this slope.
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| Amazing Beech roots |
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| Parmelia sulcata and Physconia grisea |
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| Trying desperately to see "pin lichens" but probably failing. |
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| First View of Fountains Abbey |
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| Nearly midday - but ice still on shaded areas. |
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| This is Diplotomma alboatrum lichen. On the otside wall at the south end of the Cellarium, where I was looking in. But I have just been to the British Lichen Society Website and see that other people have already visited this monad (1x1km square) and see that 135 lichens have already been recorded here. |
Yes, here at the "Surprise view" (You should see The Abbey beyond the river in the distance. but I have focussed the camera on the Yorkshire Pudding).. But that is for another day.
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