York Guides

Visitors coming to Fountains from the Aldfield road and the western car park reach the abbey by what was once its main entrance. They cross the outer court, where Fountains Hall now stands, and enter the great court, represented since Aislabie's day by an expanse of lawn. Here they face the west front of the abbey church with, on its right, the vast length of the west range of claustral buildings presenting its impressively formal and orderly facade to the outer world.

This was not a view that could be enjoyed by the medieval visitor, for the west range which contributes so much to the impression, of orderliness and power was then partly masked by the high walls of the cellarer's yards in front of it.

This description begins with the main buildings of the abbey, and deals later with the courts and yards of the precinct and the few buildings that remain in them.