Saint Benet's Abbey

St Benet's Abbey is one of the most intriguing and historically important monastic sites in England. The abbey ruins lie on the north bank of the river Bure outside the village of Ludham, in the heart of the Norfolk Broads.

St Benet's was the first Benedictine monastery in Norfolk, founded on an island site surrounded by marshes around AD 1020 by King Cnut. The king may simply have been acknowledging the already sacred nature of a site where Christian hermits appear to have lived since the 9th century. Archaeological excavations support the theory that the site was occupied long before Cnut officially founded the abbey.