Visiting St. Bees Priory

 Of course, the jewel in the crown of our visit to St. Bees was always going to be the Priory:

Having read Wordsworth's St. Bees' Head poem, I knew that St. Bees Priory was founded on a pre-Norman religious site in the early 12th century, through which the Benedictines played a prominent role in actively Christianising the local area and further afield.

Sadly, much of the Priory was destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries but the main body of the church survived (somewhat like what happened at Bolton Abbey). 

Entering the Priory church:

I saw an ancient (pre-Norman) cross:

Showing that a Christian site existed here long before the Norman Benedictine Priory was set up around 1120.

Of course, the Priory church now has a very much Anglican feel:

And on the Sunday evening, I spent 15-20 minutes at an Anglican evening prayer/hymn service.

After which, I studied the church interior a little more:

Then, observed the Priory from outside again:

Ancient (and remote) places like this remind me that full reality resides in a Christian message now almost forgotten, away from the petty materialism of the contemporary world.

Yeah, St. Bees Priory is my kind of place, a spur to instinctive reflection, this I felt as I left the Priory grounds:

Will I ever visit St. Bees Priory again? 

Who knows?

I'm almost 61-years-old and live thousands of miles away in a foreign land.