Visitors to places such as Rievaulx Abbey will be encouraged to focus on appreciating the peace and tranquillity
Modern visitors to monastic ruins are more often than not on their phones or chatting to each other, or thinking about work and what’s for tea, or shouting at the kids to please get away from that latrine drain.
Over the next month, English Heritage is hoping people might consider silence, for an hour at least. It has launched an “hour of contemplation” trial project at 16 monastic sites that it looks after in England, from Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island in Northumberland to Battle Abbey, founded by William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings.
