Buckfastleigh is a small market town in Devon at the edge of the Dartmoor National Park, and is home to Buckfast Abbey, the South Devon Railway and the Buckfastleigh Butterfly and Otter Sanctuary.
There are two Primary Schools: St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Buckfast and Buckfastleigh Primary School. Local shops including a post office and The Mill Shop is a carpet and rug shop located in Buckfastleigh and nearby in Dean Prior there is Dean Forge which specialises in wood burning Stoves, multi fuel stoves, traditional range cookers, flues and lots more. It is said that Buckfast probably existed before Buckfastleigh as it is mentioned in the Doomsday Book.
Buckfastleigh is medieval in origin, as is still evident in the original layout of the town. By the seventeenth century, most of the properties had been rebuilt, but the medieval layout, particularly in Fore Street, is still visible today.
The name "Buckfast" means "stronghold" - traditionally a place where deer and buck were held, and "Leigh" would have been the pasture belonging to Buckfast - hence the meaning deer held in pasture (buck-fast-leigh).
Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfastleigh, which is dedicated to Saint Mary. It was founded in 1018 and run by the Cistercian order from 1147 until it was destroyed under the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1882 monks began living there again, and today it is a Benedictine foundation. There are 3 shops: The Gift Shop, Bookshop and The Monastic produce shop, and also The Grange Restaurant and Tearooms.
The South Devon Railway is a seven mile former Great Western Railway branch line, built in 1872, which runs along the stunning valley of the River Dart between Buckfastleigh and Totnes.
Geographically, Buckfastleigh straddles the confluence of two small streams from Dartmoor which feed into the River Dart just to the east of the town. About one mile to the north lies Buckfast.
