| Summary : The remains of the cloister of Buckland Abbey. The cloister stood to the north of the abbey church and was about 30 metres square, terraced into the natural ground slope. The south wall of the north range of the cloister acted as a retaining wall and has been incorporated into the later property boundary. The medieval wall is some 30 metres in length and stands to a height of 3.3 metres. The 16 metres length forming the eastern half includes five blocked windows with wide splays on the inside. The north face of this section has an inset for a floor below the windows, and beneath that includes sections of six arches. It appears that due to the ground slope, access into this range from the cloister would have been, unusually, at first floor level. Excavations in 1984 on the north side of the west end of the wall revealed a complex sequence of medieval activity in the form of floor levels and wall footings. The north range would have contained the refectory and kitchens. The buried remains are Scheduled whilst the cloister wall is Listed Grade II. |