Buckfast Abbey Review

Visit the grounds for a garden fayre and thought the Abbey was an excellent place to visit on its own. Nice location with a lovely river running through the grounds.

Stunning place! If you enjoy a but of history, an a peaceful environment you will love Buckfast Abbey. The modern exhibiting is very educational and immersive

Beautiful n peaceful place - far from the madding crowd .... SOOOO QUIET! No traffic noise at all!

This came as a it of a surprise. I was staying I a local hotel and discovered that the Abbey was just around the corner. If you are ever traveling in this area, I would recommend that you have a short break and check it out. The Abbey, the gardens and surrounding buildings are all spotlessly clean and beautiful. Sadly it was a tad drissly on our visit, but still worth a look. This is so close to the main road, but the first thing that you will notice is the tranquility. Even if you only give it a one hour stop over, it will be an hour very well spent.

It's stunningly beautiful, and the history of its beginnings, would definitely visit again

Beautiful Abbey and gardens. Very serene and calming. Excellent restaurant and plenty of toilet facilities. Architecture within the abbey is breathtaking. Picnic area and free parking. Onsite shop.

A beautiful Abbey in lovely surrounding. An ideal place to stop for a break as its only minutes off the A38, and has a great cafe along with various other gift shops.

such beautiful gardens, cannot wait to return to look around the Abbey x

Excellent Abbey supported by pleasant gardens and good supporting refreshments and facilities

Abbey a delight surrounded by excellent gardens with plenty of seats. Free car park on site. Cafe fair price, bright and airy with covered outside seating area.

A wonderful church, that was rebuilt many years ago approx (100 years +) by the monks who live there. Nice little shops and plenty to see. So much history goes with this church well worth a visit.

Love this place lots going on with events every month through out the summer and the rest of the year. Staff are brilliant. Food excellent and customer service excellent. Everyone always goes that extra mile. The gardens always beautifully kept. I will be back soon.

First visit to the Abbey, what a wonderful place, the Abbey is set in lovely grounds which are kept immaculate and when you go into the Abbey the sense of calm is amazing and for those that like photography you will be amazed, definitely recommend this place.

Lovely walk in the gardens the gardener were so friendly and helpful telling us about the names of the flowers a shrubs the Abbey was buautiful

Well worth a visit and there are restrictions in place at the moment because of COVID 19!!
There is a lovely Cafe for a bite to eat and grounds to leisurely walk around.
There is also Buckfast Abbey Tonic to purchase.

Lovely day out. Also there is a lovely cafe there and you can book it for things and get food and drinks.

Free entry with ample parking. Very peaceful place with beautifully kept lawns. The Abbey itself is a must see.

Amazing place and so peaceful. To think it was built by the monk's.

Stayed in the area for a 2 day midweek break. Visited the Abbey and it's beautiful grounds, stayed for the evening chants. The whole experience was very moving, the building was beautiful and the gardens were very well kept. Will definitely visit again next time we're that way.

The Abbey and grounds were magnificent . We attended the 10.30am sung Mass on Sunday it was very beautiful and the chant was sublime. Also has a good cafe a great spot for a Devon Cream Tea!

Excellent gardens smashing restaurant good range pasties top notch! Gift shop is worth a look around. Church is interesting worth a trip out you won't be disappointed!!

Such a peaceful place, the church is so light inside, has beautiful fragrant herb and lavender gardens, it has excellent facilities and the shops have lovely gifts and hand made produce from Devon but also from other monasteries all over Europe. The cafe has a wide range of delicious food and fair prices. It not a place for your pet poochie though, so you need to take that into account before your visit. Such a gem of a place.

Buckfast Abbey was one of our recent stops on our trip to England. I can't recommend this place enough - we thought we may be here for 30-45 minutes, and ended up staying nearly four hours. As others have said, regardless of your religion or beliefs, there is a great deal of information and rich history relevant to everyone that can be learned here. I found it very engaging! The grounds are absolutely breathtaking, not to mention some of the architecture is really outstanding. Some unique little shops to browse- we were able to find a few nice gifts for family back home. The cafe was also a pleasant surprise- good prices, great quality and a large variety of options to choose from. We really enjoyed our visit and I would recommend it highly to anyone!

Went to their annual Garden Fayre, free parking and addmission, had a very enjoyable day. Lots of interesting things for grown ups and children. Well organised, cafe good, lovely scenery and relaxing atmosphere, worth a visit.

Nice gardens millennium garden well worth a visit. See if you can spot the monk. Methodist chapel there too. Free parking and no entrance fee, reduced opening hours due to covid so keep an eye out on that. Didn't see the monks they were hiding somewhere and somebody had stolen the posionous sign from the garden which is scary and st peters feet are shielding so no touching them or kissing them ok you have been informed.

This is a wonderful place to visit the stained-glass in the main hall is absolutely breathtaking The church in the main centre looking up next to the main alter it s amazing

A lovely and peaceful setting, but remember that this is not an Ancient Monument. The building and artefacts are new (and very impressive), although there is a square of an old cotton shirt. A Roman Catholic Abbey, focusing strongly on the important work of the Benedictine monks through history. It was disappointing, but not unexpected, that the primary focus was on philanthropic work rather than the Apostolic calling of "preaching Christ crucified and raised from the dead". Interesting, beautiful but not spiritually fulfilling.

Great coffee. Lovely, peaceful contemplative place to wile away an hour, looking out over the grounds

An excellent place of worship. We were extremely impressed by the mood, cleanliness and wonderful Abbey and surroundings. First class

Nice scenic place to visit, you can go i to the Abbey and it is big.
After there is a cafe you can goto which have decent quality food and drinks.

Very special place. The bell ringing made it special. Very surprised to find that entry was free. Don't see much of that nowadays! Well done to Abbey authorities for that decision.

Very tranquil and beautiful place, full of history. A great place for contemplation.

Such a peaceful, lovely location. Very worth a visit. My 3 year old loved it

Lovely, tranquil day out. Brilliant cream tea in the cafe.

A stunning abbey and grounds. Full of tranquil spots for refection and to admire the majesty of the architecture. The autumnal sunshine mixed with the golden leaves make this time of year very picturesque.

Beautiful peaceful spiritual place .lovely grounds good food

Fantastic place. We went for their first food festival. Great day out

Such a well presented place great gardens, tea rooms etc so much history. Great place to visit

Good and peaceful place to visit, plenty to see. Added bonus free art exhibition,all Devon artists.

Free entry and interesting for an hour or so. Had to make the pilgrimage as I'm from Portadown, Northern Ireland, where their main product is revered.

Always a delight and well prepared in Covid times. Shop is good as is the restaurant. Most important, the Abbey is open.

Well wife and I visited this ancient monastery 1018 or thereabouts. Beautiful buildings, and grounds. Immaculately kept by the working monks. In one of the buildings is some high tech equipment allowing you to read virtual scrpts and More

The Abbey has beautiful stained glass windows The gardens are beautiful
Just a Beautiful place to come and have a wander around The cafes roast was yummy and there hot chocolate and reasonably priced to

Buckfast Abbey on the edge of dartmoor is well worth a visit. The Abbey has been renovated and the stone work cleaned. It is visually stunning and the stain glass window at the rear is worth a visit on its own. You'll love the restaurant the sweets and puddings are amazing.

Great place to visit Very clean and airy Very helpful staff

Beautiful peaceful place. Chuffed that there was no entry fee

Beautiful Abbey. Lots of information with touch screen technology. Abbey is spectacular. Lovely cafe and gift shop. Gardens to explore. Plenty of parking. Well worth a visit.

Lovely ,quiet place. They accepted our hearing dog in training but pet dogs are not allowed. Very informative and nice cafe.

Another return visit as our coach holiday had included this visit as part of the holiday itinerary. The Abbey was as we remembered it, bit each visit one can find a new interest, but the huge stained glass window in the quiet chapel remains locked in the memory. The cafe had a great selection of goodies to tempt and the shop also stocked some very nice preserves and pickles. Sadly some of the locally produced liqueurs were not available. A recommended visit.

Beautiful, peaceful place with excellent visitors centre. Stunning abbey church, slightly overpriced but very good shop with products from various monasteries (soaps, unguents, perfumes, books, fudge, wine, incense, icons, etc.).

A wonderful Benedictine Abbey, surrounded by lavander and immersed in a lovely countryside. The hospitality, food and spiritual experience were great and this place is highly recommended for a visit.

Lovely place to visit for a bit of peace with fantastic gardens a reasonably priced restaurant with good shops

Visited for a 2and time lovely surroundings shame about covid restrictions

This was our first visit as a family and we made the trip as there was a children's book festival that included storytelling, meet the authors and book signing, the kids loved it. Car parking is free and so is access to the gardens and the Abbey all of which are wheelchair and buggy friendly. At the entrance is a newly built museum that touches on the history of Buckfast Abbey and it is not what you expect, very modern and interactive and kept the little ones engaged way longer than we thought. As you would expect the place is immaculate and well maintained, it was summer and the grounds looked and smelt lovely with all the flowers out in bloom There are plenty of places to have a picnic or a restaurant is on site. The highlight is the Abbey itself which is amazing, not an ancient building but completed only 30 years ago, it does have a very light modern feeling about it and you'll probably have a sore neck when you leave after trying to look at all the detail in the ceiling. Overall a fantastic place to visit and we spent a good 3-4 hours looking around.

so peaceful. Beautiful stained glass. Lots of space

Absolutely gorgeous place. Well worth the visit. Highly recommended

Very surreal to just see the top of the spire from a distance and then to walk through that original north gate and see the sprawling green and the huge church and abbey. The gardens are small but comfortable and the restaurant had a good selection of food.

We enjoyed a visit to this place. The church is simply beautiful and a fitting place to worship God. The modern restaurant is spacious and has a good range of food and drinks. There is a good book shop and two souvenir shops with monastic products to eat and drink. Beautiful grounds to stroll in and a 'monastic life' display (closed at 3pm) to visit. Plentiful parking available. No monks visible.

Lovely atmospheric abbey to walk round, very small but pretty gardens. Toilets, restaurant, gift shop (expensive though). Free parking and easy access, good place to stop off for an hour or so. If you are wanting to attend mass you can do so or you can just walk round the abbey. Relaxing, peaceful atmosphere to take a few mins out in. I do feel the prices in the gift shop could be lower though, we brought less than we would have as I balked at a lot of the prices. Worth a quick visit if you are in the area but I wouldn't go out of my way to visit as not enough there to do especially if you have young kids.

I love the Abbey and its grounds, the stained glass is amazing and there is a peaceful tranquility about the place that will draw you back.

It's a amazing place to go and visit the Abbey is beautiful

some nice shops, not a fan of the abbey itself though

Lovely afternoon out with my son and granddaughter, even though the abbey is not open completely it was still interesting. Plenty of parking, and very helpful staff.

Very beautiful abbey church. An extremely beautiful stained glass window. Peaceful inside the church. The display about the history of the building and the order very good. The gardens that surround the abbey are interesting and well maintained.

Beautifully crafted and built with lots of information, a wonderful tearoom and little shops. Gardens galour. Loved every minute.

A nice place to visit. I find it very peaceful and like to sit and think of loved ones past and light a candle. The little chapel on site was nice as well. The Abbey restaurant serves very high quality food. And note that the trifles on sale contain their tonic. Really enjoyable.

Very interesting, definitely would recommend this if you are in the area

Interesting place with free entrance and parking. Nice cafe.

Beautiful Abbey / grounds. Amazing history. Feeling of peacefulness (?) Good cafe. Enjoyed cream tea. Picked up some of their wares.......

The staff were very welcoming under the present virus. Gardens well kept. Shame the new window was closed for viewing
as I wanted to see that. What I could see looked interesting. Shame as I am from South Africa. Why does it have to be closed? Your priest were going in? Shame.

Great place to go and visit and have a snack. Offers gluten free cakes as well which is great. Nice place to look around

Complex includes the Abbey, Bookshop, Gardens, Art Gallery and interactive Education Centre. The Gardens are great backdrop for family photos so bring your camera. Children loved the interactive centre with Mosaic puzzle, stained window assembly and virtual prayer machine. Also make sure you visit the shop at the Entrance, they have some very good tipple there (not just the Buckfast Tonic!).