Guisborough Travel Guide

3 more images

The bells of St Nicholas church were ringing 4pm when we arrived, and that was the time admission to the priory closed. It is open except on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10am-4pm.

I was able to see the priory by taking a walk through St Nicholas graveyard, and then following a path that wanders behind the church,
Talking to a local, I learned that there broken walls and gardens to see, but the main structure is that in the photo.
The priory was built in 1119 by Robert de Brus, an ancestor of Robert the Bruce, on land bequeathed by William the Conqueror. It is one of the earliest Augustine religious houses. The Priory of St Mary of Gisborough [sic] is open from 11am -3.30 pm. Like many of the religious houses it was dissolved by Henry VIII, in1540.
In 1709 the cloisters and name were cleared away, leaving only the Norman gatehouse and the eastern gable as decoration in what was then a formal garden. The gable would have had a rose window, and is 97feet high.
The dovecote dates to the 14th Century, probably.