I appreciate it sounds a little contradictory to say we went somewhere for their gardens on a rainy day out in Torquay, but it was a considered choice!
Palm House and Arid House at Torre Abbey and Gardens
They have got lovely gardens at Torre Abbey and we got to see some of them between drizzle. But they’ve got two large orangeries - or greenhouses for lack of a better word. One of them is called the Palm House and that's quite a large area to run around the perimeter of. It feels like you’ve gone into the reptile section at Paignton Zoo or similar (although it'll be smaller than that) - it's got that vibe but without any animals. Having said that, when we walked in there was a sign saying "beware of the animals" and a teddy tiger in a tree. That really excited our three year old and made him look for other animals. Near the end we bumped into a lady who was working there, and we asked if there were any other animals besides the ones we'd seen. This lady, probably in her 50s, then told us how when she was little she used to visit the Palm House, and heard tigers growling! And it most certainly wasn't her Dad(!). So that's why there were animals there now. I just thought that was a really lovely chance encounter, because it meant this lady had fallen in love with these gardens as a child and was now seemingly in charge of them.
Besides the Palm House there's then a much smaller, but still interesting, cactus house (the Arid House) where you just go around with your hands in your pocket scared to touch anything. But really interesting to see so many different looking cacti.
Back out in the gardens, we wandered around paths between flower beds and roses, and saw a willow tunnel - and then we spent a while wandering around and reading signs about the ruins that are in the garden. Whilst the abbey is still large, there were other parts which don't exist anymore including a chapel, and the signage explains everything. But by then, the rain was getting quite bad and the wind was picking up, so we headed inside. (We'd actually been told when we arrived to head to the gardens first if we wanted to see them at all, as they often close them in bad weather. And there are some very big trees around the edges which were swaying quite a lot.)
Inside Torre Abbey
As soon as you enter, before you even pay (so this bit is free) you can go into some - I don't remember the word they use and I can't find it on their website now - but kinda like catacombs. You feel like you're in a medieval basement or cellar basically, as everything is stone with pillars and arches. There's lots of interesting information here with screens to touch and signage to read, explaining how abbeys made their money (enough money to be these big immpressive buildings). Spolier alert: rich people thought if they gave money to monks in return for them saying prayers on their behalf, it'd help them skip pergatory and go straight to heaven. Or at least cut down on their time there. Pergatory was (is?!) an unpleasant place where you're cleansed of your sins - but cleansed with fire! That's my simplistic explanation anyway.
It'd only take 10 - 15 minutes to watch and read everything, so it's not really worth venturing out of your way for this "free" attraction, but if you are in the area and just want to see the abbey from the outside upclose primarily, then you can at least still step inside and feel like you've seen part of the museum.
Then you carry on into the reception where you pay your entrance fee (at the time of writing this - under 5s are free, children are £4, adults £11 with family tickets available that give savings) and can browse the gift shop. The shop was nice, but there were things there that we'd seen at the House of Marbles the day before, and they were a lot cheaper at the House of Marbles... but then that shop is crazy cheap on some things.
And then you go off into the rest of the house.
Accessibility at Torre Abbey
We didn't have a push chair with us but I'd say it was fairly accessible - a good lift, plus the little ones that you push a button on to get up short flights of stairs. There's more about accessibility on their website but a place doesn't normally go to the effort of putting lifts everywhere and then not give you space to wheel around each floor.
Torre Abbey Museum: is it good for kids?
There is quite a lot to see at the museum - lots of art and sculpture, and then lots of history about the building and how the monks used to live, followed by what happened with the building when it moved to being a private residence.
Their website talks about how they want kids to love museums, so they aim to make things very interactive... but my youngest 2 were just not in the mood. So I can't give a glowing review of how it entertained them really well... but I don't think anything would of that day, short of just a park. And we still would have had moaning. Personally though, I do think the place lives up to it's promise of providing interactive exhibits to engage children - some of the things that we spent longest on were:
- Sliding tiles around in a puzzle to recreate a work of art
- Dressing up
- Pressing a button to see a portrait come to life and tell us about his time living in the house and an adventure with the Spanish Armada
- A dining table with place settings that come to life with videos on the plates (my personal favourites - you can see them in my reel)
- The temporary exhibit...
Temporary exhibitions at Torre Abbey
Torre Abbey is very much a gallery as well as a museum and the reason we went the day we did was primarily for an exhibition they had about moving models - automata, featuring the work of artists such as Paul Spooner. The kids loved pressing the buttons to see the really intricate and often comical models come to life and move. Even though that exhibit is gone now, do keep an eye on Torre Abbey's What's On page as they have different things happening all the time.
How do you find Torre Abbey and where do you park?
Now, we did find the Abbey quite tricky to locate. Well, it's not, because it's massive and you can see it, but what I didn't realise, is that they don't have parking. It does say on their website, but you click on a little car icon to display the info and I didn't do that, I just scrolled quickly on my phone to the main text on the page and missed the place where it told you where to park. Even if I had clicked on it though, the car park page they currently link to is gone now (so if you're reading this Torre Abbey, you need to update that). If you need disabled parking or a drop off you can go in the main gates, but otherwise you need to park elsewhere. So we parked in the Riviera International Centre, and paid for - I think - 3 hours parking. So our visit at the Abbey was almost 3 hours long.
To get to the Abbey from where we parked, we went back to the main road, and then along a stone wall and through a tiny wooden gate. We then walked through some tall trees, down the outside of the walled abbey garden, until we got to a point where we could turn right, walk past the cafe, and round to the front (I think we cut through an arch or similar) to go into the entrance. The entrance isn't a big main door, it's quite a humble little wooden door, but it has flags or signs outside.
Overall I'd say Torre Abbey was definately worth a visit and it was a good half-day-out before we went back to where we were staying for a rainy day swim.
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