Ellerton Priory – A Quiet Survivor in Swaledale

Ellerton Priory began life in the 1100s as a Cistercian nunnery, one of several small religious houses tucked away in the Yorkshire Dales. It was never a large or wealthy institution, but it played a steady part in the life of Swaledale for centuries. The nuns here lived a simple, disciplined existence shaped by prayer, farming, and the rhythms of dale life. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, the buildings were gradually abandoned, dismantled, or absorbed into the surrounding farmland.

Today, the tower is the priory’s last standing witness. Seen from the air, its isolation becomes crystal clear – a lone medieval structure in an open landscape of fields, river bends, and rolling hills. The footprint of the wider site has long since faded, but the tower holds its ground stubbornly, a reminder that even the quietest corners of the Dales have deep stories buried in them.

Capturing it from above shows not only the ruin but the environment that shaped the people who lived here. Swaledale’s beauty is part of the story: remote enough to demand resilience, peaceful enough to nurture a contemplative life. Ellerton’s ruins may be modest, but their setting is spectacular – a perfect example of history blending into landscape rather than dominating it.