Furness Abbey

by Stuart Harrison, Jason Wood, and Rachel Newman

Published 1 January 1998
The extensive red sandstone ruins of Furness Abbey are set in the beautiful wooded Vale of Nightshade. By the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, Furness was the second richest Cistercian abbey in England after Fountains. Before it became Cistercian, Furness belonged to the Savigniac Order and today, remains of the earlier monastery can be seen among the later Cistercian remains.