A Benedictine ruin on the Somerset Levels, its church down to its footings but the abbot's house standing nearly whole
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Muchelney means something close to ‘the great island’, which is what this patch of raised ground was when the surrounding Somerset Levels were open marsh and water. A community of Benedictine monks held the abbey here from Anglo-Saxon times, making it one of the oldest religious houses in Somerset, second only to Glastonbury by tradition. Henry VIII closed it in the 1530s, and the great church was pulled down to its foundations, which you can trace as low walls in the turf. What did survive, almost intact, is the abbot’s house — the comfortable lodging built for the head of the monastery not long before the end, with big windows, carved fireplaces and a painted chamber upstairs. English Heritage looks after it. In the village around it are the parish church, worth a look for its painted wooden ceiling, and the thatched medieval Priest’s House across the way, while the River Parrett Trail passes close by if you want a walk out across the Levels.
More at the National Heritage List entry
