York Guides

The church and the main buildings of the abbey stood near the centre of a precinct that enclosed Skelldale over a distance of rather more than half a mile and covered an area of about 70 acres. The quarried face of the rocks formed a sufficient boundary on most of the north side, which was also covered by the abbey's grange at Swanley on top of Rye Bank overlooking the dale. On the other sides the precinct was enclosed by a stone wall, some 12 ft high to the top of its coping. Much of this wall remains to its full height along the south boundary, outside the Ministry's guardianship, and its foundations can also be seen crossing the valley about 500 yards east of the abbey buildings. Outside the precinct to the south lay the abbey's grange of Morker, and to the south-west was Fountains Park with its extensive fishponds.

Within this main boundary the precinct was subdivided into lesser areas and courtyards for different purposes. The main division was the River Skell running from west to east through the whole precinct and canalised within stone banks for much of its length. North of the river there is a fairly level but narrow tract of land, no more than 25 yds wide at the west end but increasing to 150 yds wide in the centre of the dale. Along this strip lay the main courtyards and buildings qf the abbey. South of the river a much wider but undulating area was given over to the agricultural and industrial activities necessary for provisioning the abbey and working its estates. There were eastern, southern, and western gates to the precinct, but the position of only the last is known.