Our Lady of the Crag

	The Abbot of Ampleforth conducts the Millennium installation ceremony with the community of Knaresborough

In Knaresborough in North Yorkshire is the ancient shrine of Our Lady of the Crag, in a cave cut into the rocky crags overlooking the river Nidd, which cuts a gorge through the centre of the town.

Accroding to local legend the shrine was dedicted to Our Lady in the 12th century by John the Builder in thanks for a miracle that saved the life of his son from a rock-fall. But some say it is very much older.

Nearly 500 years ago the shrine was suppressed during the Reformation, and became neglected and forgotten. In the early 1990s a local group formed to renovate the shrine and to create a sacred garden around it, supported by the Sacred Land project.

	The newly-installed Madonna and Child

Now a stunning new Madonna and Child, carved from Yorkshire granite, commissioned by Arts and Sacred Places, has been installed in the cave, the work of Yorkshire sculptor Ian Judd.