Byland

Well yes! This is me . . . and a pretty picture. Not often that happens. But what else to do, when the sky is that blue and there isn’t a cloud to be seen. Not much point aiming for atmosphere – a feeling of history etc. Might as well take the ‘chocolate box/catalogue cover-type’ picture and have done with it. (Actually this is the catalogue cover picture!)
 
After a morning walk by the sea and an excellent breakfast at our guest house, we left Bridlington and made for Bempton Cliffs. What a great place this is for seeing seabirds. A little early for young and for Puffins; most birds are nesting and looking after eggs, Puffins hidden underground.  But the sheer theatre of it all is what always strikes me – the numbers of birds, the noise, the action. Quite mesmerising. (I have added a picture of this in extras.)
 
Then we meandered our way back home in the sunshine, and via Revaulx  Abbey and then Byland Abbey, a place I had not been to since I was in school.  Much more impressive than I had imagined, especially this ruined West front, with the remains of the great rose window, the prototype for several such windows in the north, including York Minster. What a sight it must have been. An outstanding example of early Gothic architecture, the church was the largest at the time, and the ruins of the rest of the abbey are extensive. There is also the most wonderful tiled floor still intact in the church (see next extra)
 

What a day of sunshine!