• Torre Abbey Welcomes High Flyers
    17/06/2008

    The re-opening of Torre Abbey in July - following a £6.5-million restoration project - coincides with the appearance of the latest visitor attraction in Torquay.

    Based in the grounds of the Abbey, hiFlyer will enable visitors to gain a birds-eye view not only of the biggest surviving mediaeval monastery in Devon and Cornwall, but also the whole of Torbay and surrounding region.

    The tethered helium-filled balloon operated by Lindstrand AeroPlatforms is capable of taking up to 30 people at a time to a height of around 400 feet.  As well as simply being great fun, it will also give visitors to Torquay the chance to see Torre Abbey – which first took shape in 1196 when founded as a Premonstratensian Monastery - from an entirely different perspective.

    It costs £14 for adults, and £8 for children (under 16) to fly silently skywards for 15 minutes on board the hiFlyer.  Flights are available during the day, and at night when the balloon is illuminated.

    Alastair Gunning, Director of Lindstrand AeroPlatforms said: “Our first flights were in late May and the response from passengers has been fantastic.  The views are amazing and stretch over the whole of Torbay, including the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, the surrounding countryside and headlands, the tors of Dartmoor and even the Dorset coast across Lyme Bay.  We are only a few hundred metres from Torre Abbey and the views over the Abbey and gardens are extremely unusual.  It looks beautiful, and you can clearly see the footprint of the ancient buildings.  Not everyone realises how extensive the Abbey site and its hidden gardens are.  They can be quite surprised to see it all from that angle.”

    Able to boast one of the finest seafront locations on the south west coastline, the Abbey also contains the third largest art collection in Devon, the Abbey is now part-gallery, part-museum, and part-historic house.

    When it re-opens on July 5th the property will, for the first time in its history, be open to the public all year round.  It will also offer its visitors the chance to explore one of the most fascinating areas of the property never previously seen by the general public – the evocative medieval undercrofts.  In stark contrast to the birds-eye view obtained from the hiFlyer balloon, visitors who pass through the gates of the Abbey will get the chance to see at close hand the way in which the restoration work has helped to blend ancient, with modern.

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