National Trust - Rievaulx Terrace

England, United Kingdom

---

Rievaulx Terrace, managed by the National Trust, is an exquisite 18th-century landscape garden in North Yorkshire, England, overlooking the ruined Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in the Ryedale valley.

Created around 1758 by Thomas Duncombe II as a serpentine half-mile grassy walkway on a wooded hillside, it was designed to frame dramatic, unfolding views of the abbey through carefully positioned openings, flanked by two ornate Palladian temples: the Tuscan Temple with medieval floor tiles at the south end and the rectangular Ionic Temple for banqueting at the north, both inspired by Roman antiquities.

This Grade I listed site blends formal follies with natural woodland, wildflower banks, and picturesque scenery, offering peaceful walks, picnics, and seasonal highlights like bluebells in spring amid its historic role in pioneering English landscape gardening.​