Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MOUNT GRACE PRIORY
Mount Grace Priory was founded by Thomas Holland, Duke of Surrey and Earl of Kent,
and a nephew of Richard II, in 1398, though it was not completed until after 1440. Its
full title is 'The House of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Nicholas
of Mount Grace in Ingleby', and it remains today of considerable ecclesiastical interest,
being one of the finest examples of a Carthusian monastery existing anywhere.
Life in these monasteries was one we would countenance today only with abject hor-
ror. Mount Grace housed 15 or so hermit-monks, living as solitaries in two-storey cells,
22 feet square. The ground floor had a fireplace and a wooden staircase to the room
above, with a small garden separated from the next by high walls, in which the monk
worked alone. Meeting their fellows only for matins and vespers, and the occasional
feast day when services were held in the church, the monks would spend 10 hours each
day in their cells, reading, praying, eating and meditating. So that no contact might
be made with the server, food was brought to the monks and passed through a right-
angled hatch. The monks remained at Mount Grace for 140 years, until the dissolution
in 1539.
Now in the guardianship of English Heritage, the priory is generally open to the pub-
lic, and contains a reconstructed and furnished cell. Walkers heading no further than
Clay Bank Top will find ample time in the day to divert through Arncliffe Wood to the
priory, where the austerity and greyness of the lives of those who lived and died there
is most noticeably impressed on a receptive mind.
Ingleby Cross to Clay Bank Top
Distance
18.4km (11½ miles)
Height Gain
775m (2545 feet)
On the last lap now, so to speak, but between Ingleby Cross and Glaisdale there
are few opportunities actually along the line of the walk to find accommodation. For-
tunately, many bed-and-breakfast proprietors, with accommodation in the numerous
villages that shelter beneath the Cleveland Hills and the eastern moors, offer ferry ser-
vices, and will pick up walkers from virtually anywhere. In some instances, this means
being able to spend more than one night at a particular location, with transportation at
the start and end of each day to resume the walking. Purists, of course, would never
think of such a thing, but there are many advantages to it. Some concern hygiene, dry
clothes, comfort and warm beds, others the possibility of having a day or two with a
light rucsac for a change.
The customary day's end to this section is Clay Bank Top (nearest telephone 1km
off-route to the south), though the up-and-down nature of the stretch from Huthwaite
Green at the head of Scugdale can be quite tiring.
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