---
title: "St Michaels Tower, Glastonbury"
description: "Located in Glastonbury, Somerset. Built C12 church destroyed 1275; tower rebuilt first half of C14; restored 1804. Grade I. Perpendicular style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","National Trust","Somerset","Glastonbury","Grade I","Perpendicular","Ruin","Scheduled Monument"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-michaels-tower-glastonbury"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T01:43:32.789Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-09T12:31:23.762Z"
location: "Glastonbury, Somerset"
country: "England"
county: "Somerset"
town: "Glastonbury"
address: "Glastonbury Tor, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 8BG"
postcode: "BA6 8BG"
built: "C12 church destroyed 1275; tower rebuilt first half of C14; restored 1804"
denomination: "National Trust"
dedications: ["Michael"]
grade: "I"
style: "Perpendicular"
materials: "Stone; unroofed three-storey tower with corner buttresses and battlements"
website: "https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/glastonbury-tor"
openingHours: "Open dawn to dusk everyday."
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1345475"
gridReference: "ST 512 386"
accessNotes: "Reached on foot by steep paths up Glastonbury Tor; no vehicular access to the summit."
---

# St Michaels Tower, Glastonbury

St Michael's Tower is the Grade I remnant of the medieval church of St Michael on the summit of Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, in the care of the National Trust.

## Overview

Historic England lists only the tower, without its upper storey, from the medieval church. The listing describes late thirteenth-century work with Perpendicular additions, restored in 1804: three storeys, corner buttresses, string courses, Perpendicular bell-openings and battlements, a sculptured tablet of an eagle below the parapet, seven canopied niches on the west face, Y-tracery to the lower storey, and carved reliefs over a deeply moulded west door. It is a dominant feature of the Somerset landscape and a scheduled monument.

The scheduled-monument entry records twelfth-century foundations for a stone church that formed the focus of a monastic complex (a 1243 charter permits a fair at the monastery of St Michael on the Tor). That church was destroyed by an earthquake on 11 September 1275. Rebuilding began under Abbot Adam of Sodbury in the first half of the fourteenth century; the base of the standing tower dates from this campaign. The 1804 restoration entirely rebuilt the north-east corner. Niches on the west face include a statue of St Dunstan and the base of a statue of St Michael. Reliefs flanking the west doorway show an angel at the weighing of a soul and St Bridget milking a cow. The scar of the nave roof is visible on the east side; excavated foundations showed a rebuilt church about 25 metres long including the tower and 7.5 metres wide.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1345475](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1345475)
- [Historic England scheduled monument 1019390](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1019390)
- [British Listed Buildings: St Michaels Church Tower](https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101345475-st-michaels-church-tower-glastonbury)
- [National Trust: Glastonbury Tor](https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/glastonbury-tor)