St Mary of the Fountains was a twelfth century Cistercian abbey, its foundation coming from a party of dissatisfied monks who had left York in 1132. Its remains are now a scenic pivot between Fountains Hall, built in 1611 using stone from the dissolved abbey, and the wonderful eighteenth century water gardens of Studely Royal begun in 1718 by a disgraced Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Aislabie.

When the first monks arrived, the site was remote and wild - purposely chosen to underline their wish for a stricter rule. In 1133, having built a thatched hut under an elm tree, and living on a diet of herbs and boiled leaves, they decided to adopt the Cistercian rule. St Bernard of Clairvaux sent one of his monks, Geoffrey, to them to teach their new rule. Two years later, the stone building began, funded by a rich newcomer, and the main surviving buildings bear testament to the skill of the masons from Burgundy. The long, vaulted cellaruim, 302 feet long , survives little altered since its construction on beaten earth, the ribbed vault supported by nineteen central pillars. In the dormitory, the monks slept in two rows, keeping their woollen cassocks on to be up and ready quickly for the 2 a.m. bell for prayers.

By the fifteenth century, their spartan rule had softened a little, the abbey possessing musical instruments and a paper map of the world, showing the altar of St Peter's in Rome as its centre. Excavations have revealed the remains of a rich diet of oysters, beef, mutton, pork and venison. By the Dissolution, the abbey also possessed eighty copes, some of finely worked embroidery and six of cloth of gold. At the east end of the church, there was a huge extra transept built, the Chapel of the Nine Altars, whose only other thirteenth century parallel is a later chapel at Durham Cathedral.

Like Bolton Abbey, Fountains Abbey stands beside running water, the Skell, and the daily activities in and around the kitchens and the surrounding countryside must have been considerable.