Reading Abbey Ruins
Reading Abbey Ruins
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The Abbey Ruins will re-open on 16 June 2018.
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- Mal RLondon, United Kingdom216 contributionsStunning ruins in Reading town centreA group of us were doing a walk around Reading and the Abbey ruins were our first stop. It’s unexpected to find such old ruins in the centre of a town or city. What’s left is stunning and there is lots of information about the way monks once lived. There is 900 years of history in what was once Europe’s largest and most important monasteries. One of my favourite aspects of the Abbey is the information board that has recordings of the type of songs sung back in the day. As we walked along Chestnut Walk we saw the artwork of Oscar Wilde who spent time in the nearby gaol. This is an outdoor site that is sessile from street level and we didn’t pay to visit.Visited June 2024Traveled with friendsWritten July 16, 2024
- Adam LHartley Wintney, United Kingdom145 contributionsReading Abbey RuinsWorth a visit if you’re in the area, great bit of history and boards to read information about what you’re viewing and where you’re standing. Tucked out of the way but still in the heart of Reading town centre. East to walk to and east to walk around. Not the biggest but nice to view and visit!Visited April 2024Traveled as a coupleWritten September 2, 2024
- AnnieTidworth, United Kingdom1,890 contributionsOpen air cinema eventWe had a good night at the open air cinema event held here. A beautiful setting in amongst the ruins. The weather was a lovely clear night. The film was Top Gun Maverick and there were hot drinks & doughnuts for sale. We had a lovely evening and loved the ruins. You could wander around before the film started.Visited August 2024Traveled with friendsWritten September 14, 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.0
151 reviews
Excellent
54
Very good
45
Average
32
Poor
13
Terrible
7
Christine S
Earley, UK9 contributions
Jul 2021
I've lived in Reading nearly all my life and still the guides were able to tell and show me things I never knew about the town. 4 of us did the Abbey Quarter guided walk, 90minutes of fascinating history from Henry I up to 2nd WW in Reading. Of course the Abbey ruins are amazing and when you hear of the people who have walked through the Abbey it is just incredible to think we have trod the same pathway as Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn - but its so much more - you will have to go on a Abbey Quarter walk and discover for yourselves!!!
Written July 20, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mal R
London, UK216 contributions
Jun 2024 • Friends
A group of us were doing a walk around Reading and the Abbey ruins were our first stop. It’s unexpected to find such old ruins in the centre of a town or city. What’s left is stunning and there is lots of information about the way monks once lived. There is 900 years of history in what was once Europe’s largest and most important monasteries.
One of my favourite aspects of the Abbey is the information board that has recordings of the type of songs sung back in the day.
As we walked along Chestnut Walk we saw the artwork of Oscar Wilde who spent time in the nearby gaol.
This is an outdoor site that is sessile from street level and we didn’t pay to visit.
One of my favourite aspects of the Abbey is the information board that has recordings of the type of songs sung back in the day.
As we walked along Chestnut Walk we saw the artwork of Oscar Wilde who spent time in the nearby gaol.
This is an outdoor site that is sessile from street level and we didn’t pay to visit.
Written July 16, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Graham H
Plymouth, UK109 contributions
Sep 2022
A super site of interest next to the Kennet & Avon canal, although unfortunately, since the closing of the Wynford Arms, It's become a high traffic 'cruising' spot, and often littered with all the associated 'debris' from such. On our last visit with our young son, we very quickly saw all sorts of unsanitary rubbish and 'activity', and quickly abandoned. Such a pity that both the Forbury and ruins aren't policed effectively, and regularly cleaned up.
Written September 27, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
CarltonA10
Stoke Poges, UK446 contributions
Nov 2021
Having a couple of hours to spend in Reading led me to the Abbey Ruins. This is a very interesting historic area with some good information boards. Henry I, who was the third son of William the Conqueror, was buried here after dying in France. The exact resting place is currently unknown. Henry VIII later had the place closed down and destroyed though there are substantial remains.
Written November 16, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
John W
Reading, UK21 contributions
Sep 2021
A fantastic place to visit and to enjoy the history of. I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around it again and reading the informative information boards that spread from within the ruins across the surrounding parts of Reading, which formerly constituted the Abbey grounds. A beautiful setting for contemplation and reflection.
Written September 24, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Annie
Tidworth, UK1,890 contributions
Aug 2024 • Friends
We had a good night at the open air cinema event held here. A beautiful setting in amongst the ruins. The weather was a lovely clear night. The film was Top Gun Maverick and there were hot drinks & doughnuts for sale. We had a lovely evening and loved the ruins. You could wander around before the film started.
Written September 15, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Adam L
Hartley Wintney, UK145 contributions
Apr 2024 • Couples
Worth a visit if you’re in the area, great bit of history and boards to read information about what you’re viewing and where you’re standing. Tucked out of the way but still in the heart of Reading town centre. East to walk to and east to walk around. Not the biggest but nice to view and visit!
Written September 3, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
tizzwaz
135 contributions
Unfortunately when we got there it was all shut off, and it was a case again of the so called authorities in historic places ruining it for the public and restricting the British to their own history in the name of the idiocy of "health and safety " which eventually will happen to all the historic sites in the UK. And it will if the greedy companies like English heritage get thier way. Why not put up a sign warning of falling rocks and let the public decide. Fed up of being treated like idiot kids.
Written February 25, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
RosyU
Colombo, Sri Lanka100 contributions
Oct 2020
You can spend some time to contemplate amidst the ruins! It is in the middle of the town but very quiet and peaceful place. You can read everything by yourself and can have a tour around the walls.
Written October 29, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Abbotsbury92
Arlington, VA904 contributions
Mar 2015 • Solo
I worked right across the Kennet & Avon Canal from the abbey ruins in the early '90s while an American expat living in London. Walked through them every day on my way to and from the train station. Looked out my office window at them daily. Ate my lunch while sitting amongst them occasionally. Twenty years later I returned to Reading for the first time last weekend. They're closed now but go see them anyway. They're lovely.
Do a little research online to understand the magnitude of the abbey that sat here from the 12th until the 16th century. Stop in the Reading Museum a couple minutes from the ruins and see a full reconstruction of the abbey as well as maps that explain its layout. Relax in the Forbury Gardens, which were originally part of the abbey grounds. Exit the gardens through the south gate and, instead of walking straight through the Abbey Gate, turn left on Abbots Walk. This was essentially the entrance to the nave of the church. Just before it dead-ends in a wall turn to your right. You'll see a walkway and small garden where you can sit and admire a bronze statue of a robed figure (a monk? an abbess?) in mid-stride sculpted by Dame Elisabeth Frink (1988.) Beyond it through the fence you can see the ruins of the cloisters and chapter house (see my photos here). Turn around and admire The Blade, a brand new high-rise office building.
Walk down the stairs at the back of this garden and continue to the right onto Abbey Street. You'll see a small stream that runs into the Kennet River here called Holy Brook. Look upstream from Abbey Street and you'll see the arches that are all that remains of the abbey mill. Walk along the brook toward these ruins and imagine what this was like in medieval times. Admire the way the old and new blend here.
Head back to where Holy Brook joins the river. Look through the gate uphill into the abbey ruins. Admire the peaceful canal here and the Oscar Wilde Memorial Walk, which abuts the wall of the now-closed, Victorian-era, Reading Gaol. Wilde wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol while he was a prisoner here.
This is a wonderful little corner of Reading and, even after 20 years, it still moves me to visit it. One can bemoan the recently-developed, "scared-of-its-shadow" British local council mentality, which led to the closing of the ruins for fear of lawsuits if a flint block falls on someone. I prefer to imagine the past and hope for a future in which the Gaol is demolished and a park is established on its site replete with descriptions of the abbey, landscaping that blends with abutting Forbury Gardens, St. James' Church, and the lovely canal, and a further tribute to Oscar Wilde and the history of the gaols on this site.
It's well worth seeing and lingering here, even if one can't wander through it presently.
Do a little research online to understand the magnitude of the abbey that sat here from the 12th until the 16th century. Stop in the Reading Museum a couple minutes from the ruins and see a full reconstruction of the abbey as well as maps that explain its layout. Relax in the Forbury Gardens, which were originally part of the abbey grounds. Exit the gardens through the south gate and, instead of walking straight through the Abbey Gate, turn left on Abbots Walk. This was essentially the entrance to the nave of the church. Just before it dead-ends in a wall turn to your right. You'll see a walkway and small garden where you can sit and admire a bronze statue of a robed figure (a monk? an abbess?) in mid-stride sculpted by Dame Elisabeth Frink (1988.) Beyond it through the fence you can see the ruins of the cloisters and chapter house (see my photos here). Turn around and admire The Blade, a brand new high-rise office building.
Walk down the stairs at the back of this garden and continue to the right onto Abbey Street. You'll see a small stream that runs into the Kennet River here called Holy Brook. Look upstream from Abbey Street and you'll see the arches that are all that remains of the abbey mill. Walk along the brook toward these ruins and imagine what this was like in medieval times. Admire the way the old and new blend here.
Head back to where Holy Brook joins the river. Look through the gate uphill into the abbey ruins. Admire the peaceful canal here and the Oscar Wilde Memorial Walk, which abuts the wall of the now-closed, Victorian-era, Reading Gaol. Wilde wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol while he was a prisoner here.
This is a wonderful little corner of Reading and, even after 20 years, it still moves me to visit it. One can bemoan the recently-developed, "scared-of-its-shadow" British local council mentality, which led to the closing of the ruins for fear of lawsuits if a flint block falls on someone. I prefer to imagine the past and hope for a future in which the Gaol is demolished and a park is established on its site replete with descriptions of the abbey, landscaping that blends with abutting Forbury Gardens, St. James' Church, and the lovely canal, and a further tribute to Oscar Wilde and the history of the gaols on this site.
It's well worth seeing and lingering here, even if one can't wander through it presently.
Written March 8, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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