Mount Grace Priory is the best-preserved of the ten British ‘charterhouses’, whose Carthusian monks lived as hermits in cottage-like cells. The Priory was established in 1398 and it was the last monastery to be established in Yorkshire prior to the Reformation.

Prior to 1539 when the Priory was closed, each of the 25 Carthusian monks lived a solitary life. Each cell within the prior was in effect a private monastery, with its own cloister for meditation and walled garden filled with herbs and plants for medicinal and culinary use. The Carthusian way of life was strict but the monks enjoyed a good standard of living, allowing them the time to concentrate on religious life without worldly cares.