Fountains Abbey Music, Choir Christmas Singing, and Lights (National Trust, Yorkshire)

I recently visited Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, which was one of my favourite places that I first visited a few years ago. During December, the abbey comes to life with bright colours that light the pillars and walls, recorded choir music, and live singing in the cellarium. The cellarium has great acoustics and is a picturesque part of the abbey today. I arrived in the morning to go on the tour of the abbey and the Studley Royal Water Garden; the morning tour focused more on the UNESCO World Heritage property as a whole as constructed and used as a fashionable pleasure garden in Victorian times. There is a separate tour for the abbey history.

The tour focused on the abbey grounds and water gardens. The abbey was purchased to add to the water gardens as a romantic ruin; in those days, it was fashionable to have a ruin of a castle or abbey. We walked to the water gardens with the guide and finished on the other site and had a bite to eat in the cafe before heading back to listen to the choir.

On this day, it was York Musical Choir who were singing in the cellarium. They sang a group of Christmas songs - some traditional and some from other parts of the world. There were about ten songs that were sang, and they later sang the same songs again after a short break.

It was gradually starting to grow dark, so I waited around for the bright rainbow of lights in the cellarium and the abbey to be clearer. The lights were shining during the choir singing too, so it was magical. 

I wandered around the grounds and waited for the darkness so that I could see the colours more. The different colours and lights lit up various parts of the abbey.

After enjoying the colours, I headed over to Scotton to Guy Fawkes Arms pub to have a meal. I had enjoyed a meal at this pub on Easter during the year that I visited and went to Fountains Abbey. The food was still good, even though it is under new management now.

My previous visit to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden is here: Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden.