The Approach
Most visitors arrive at the car park adjacent to the Inner Gatehouse of the monastery which now forms part of the Abbey House Museum. The Inner Gatehouse is situated almost at the centre of the walled precinct of the abbey, an area which extended for some forty acres between the brow of the hill and the banks of the River Aire. The narrow road leading north westwards from the car park runs across the former dam for the abbey mill pond before proceeding out of the precinct by the Vesper Gate.
Crossing the modern main road, which was cut through the site in 1827, the visitor comes to the west door of the church. In the following guide to the abbey, each major feature is described in turn following a clockwise progression around the buildings.