River Skell at Fountains Abbey by Karol Gajewski
- Credit: Archant
Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal is a World Heritage Site owned by the National Trust and treasured for its 12th-century abbey ruins as well as its landscaped Georgian water garden of Studley Royal, complete with Neo-classical statues, follies and vistas.
The Cellarium, Fountains Abbey by Karol Gajewski
- Credit: Archant
Cellarium
The 300ft long cellarium located on the west side of Fountains Abbey is a photographer’s dream. The seemingly endless corridor of vaults and arches was once the storage place of foodstuffs for the Abbey but you’re more likely to find several species of bats here when darkness falls.
It has been hidden from view for thousands of years, and its whereabouts never proved. But if the Ark of the Covenant indeed rests in a chapel in northern Ethiopia, this extraordinary religious treasure could be at grave risk from fighting in the area. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, which reputedly houses the ark – a casket of gilded wood containing stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, according to the Bible – was the scene.