The Cistercian abbot originally slept in the dormitory with
the rest of his community, as stipulated in the twelfth-century customary of
the Order. It soon became common for abbots to have their own separate room(s)
adjoining or adjacent to the dormitory. In the early thirteenth century an
abbot’s
house was constructed at Byland, south of the eastern range and infirmary complex.
This large, free-standing
complex comprised of a hall and a private chamber in the east end. Excavations
revealed that a well-house stood to the east of this and may have had a chapel
at first-floor level. The hall was entered from its northern side. There was
a fireplace in its east wall, which can still be seen; a buttery and pantry
were situated to its east and a solar to its west. The east end of the complex
is the oldest part of the house and dates to c. 1190. The undercroft was vaulted
and the abbot had private chambers on the upper level.(56)
The abbot’s house
was one of the few buildings spared at the time of the Dissolution, since it
was to be used by a local farmer. However, by the late
eighteenth century it was heavily ruined and little now survives.