STAY IN OUR MONASTIC GUESTHOUSE FOR A FEW DAYS

Immerse yourself in the daily rhythm of monastic prayer

as Benedictine monks have done for hundreds of years

Guests are very welcome...
Experience the ancient wisdom and rhythm of monastic life

Please donate for your stay here

We warmly invite you as a member of the public to St Augustine’s Abbey, Chilworth a living Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery nestled in the glorious Surrey Hills near Guildford, Surrey in the United Kingdom. 

 

Whether you are seeking spiritual enrichment or discerning a monastic vocation, our doors are open to people of all faiths and none.


Your Stay at the Monastic Guest House


We offer simple, serene accommodation designed for reflection, rest and following the monks in their daily prayer.  


Eligibility: Open to men and women (aged 18+).


Facilities: Four basic guest rooms with shared facilities. One room is a double. 


Dining: Your stay includes three daily meals from the monastic kitchen plus refreshments.


Note: If you have specific dietary requirements, please kindly provide your own food.


Availability : Open year round, excluding Christmastide (Dec 25 – Jan 6) and during the monks' annual retreat.


Bookings & Contributions


As a small Community, we appreciate your cooperation with the following guidelines:


Advance Notice : Please book at least one month in advance. We are generally unable to accommodate last minute requests.


Suggested Donation : Guests kindly donate according to their means, with a minimum of £50 per person, per night (minimum stay of three nights) as a guide. Donations can be Gift Aided.


Cancellations : As a small charity, we rely on the kindness of our guests to maintain the Abbey. If you must cancel within one week of your stay, a suggested donation towards our overhead costs would be gratefully received, as it is often impossible for us to reallocate the room to another seeker at such short notice. This is not compulsory.  


How to Book: To check availability, please email Dom Andrew at domandrewmcneill@gmail.com. Click here to email Dom Andrew . 


Prepare for Your Visit


To help you prepare for the Benedictine experience, please continue reading down the page to discover:


A Visitor’s Story: Insights from those who have walked these halls before you.


The Horarium : Our daily monastic timetable of prayer and work.


Life at Chilworth : What to expect during your stay and local information.


Experience Monastic Life: Embrace St Benedict's Rule

Here's a lovely story about one of our recent guests staying at the monastic guesthouse at St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth:


Heaven in the Hills: How a hidden English Benedictine monastery helped spark “Undaunted Joy” in Shemaiah Gonzalez’s soul


American author and essayist Shemaiah Gonzalez (pictured above) has released her latest book, Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight, a luminous collection of essays exploring joy as a resilient and sacred force. What many readers may not expect is that the book’s spiritual heart was partly formed during her transformative stay at a quiet, active Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery nestled in the English countryside—St Augustine’s Abbey, Chilworth, just outside Guildford.


In three of the book’s most moving essays—Joy of Wandering, Joy of Compline and Joy of the Sabbath—Gonzalez vividly recounts her first time at the Abbey, where the rhythm of monastic life, the lyrical chant of psalms and the slow beauty of the Surrey Hills left an indelible imprint on her inner world.


“My inner dialogue was changing,” she writes in Joy of Wandering. “The psalms, which I was spending hours a day praying with the monks, were becoming part of my inner cadence.”

Amid foggy footpaths and ancient oak trees, Gonzalez found not just solace but a reorientation of the soul. Her long walks through Surrey’s countryside became both prayer and pilgrimage, gradually revealing the vital link between joy and love.


“I was discovering on those long prayerful walks how much love is intertwined with joy. How knowing I am loved and believing I am loved, opens me up to Joy. This was fortifying.”

Her reflections culminate in Joy of Compline, where she describes a moment of communal worship that transcended the ordinary, lifting her into the realm of the eternal.


“I had not expected such overwhelming emotion… But I had spent the week praying seemingly alone and was now brought to beautiful fruition in this sea of song. I had a foretaste of heaven.”

Finally, in Joy of the Sabbath, Gonzalez captures the tender mystery of Benediction. When the Abbot unexpectedly sprinkled her with holy water alongside the monks preparing for rest, she felt wrapped in divine care.


“He would not forget me, and I felt the sweet water splash against my forehead. I made the sign of the cross, and gratitude for the Lord’s protection.”

Gonzalez’s Undaunted Joy is not simply a guide to happiness; it’s a testament to joy as a spiritual discipline, nurtured in silence, beauty and belonging. Her time at St Augustine’s Abbey, Chilworth echoes throughout the work, a reminder that joy can be cultivated—even in the quiet cloisters of monastic England.


As readers around the world open her new book, they too may find themselves beckoned toward this revolutionary act of delight.


Undaunted Joy by Shemaiah Gonzalez is available on Amazon here.


St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth, UK: 31 May 2025 


HORARIUM

St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth 
Stay and pray with our Benedictine community......
An insight into the Rule of Saint Benedict 

DAILY ITINERARY

Event Mon-Fri Sat Sundays (Solemnities)
Rising Bell 5.30am 6.30am 6.30am
Office of Vigils 5.50am 5.50am Nil
Office of Lauds 7am 7am 7am
Breakfast 7.40am 7.40am 7.40am
Office of Terce 8.40am 8.40am 8.30am
MASS 9am 9am 10am
Office of Sext 12.30pm 12.30pm 12.45pm
Lunch 12.45pm 12.30pm 1pm
Office of None Immediately after lunch Immediately after lunch Immediately after lunch
Office of Vespers 6pm 5.30pm 5.30pm
Supper 7pm 6.30pm 6.30pm
Office of Compline 8.30pm Sunday Vigils at 8pm 8.30pm
Join us in the Abbey Church for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrement every week on Fridays 8pm-8.45pm and Sundays 4pm-5pm. 

Other activities take place at St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth, including a weekly lay ecumenical meditation group, events and study days, which might also be of interest during your stay. 

In your free time, there is some stunning countryside on our doorstep which is ideal for walking. Chilworth and Blackheath villages are nearby and Chilworth has a railway station with a bus stop.

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What to expect: the MONASTIC GUEST HOUSE at St Augustine's Abbey, Chilworth

WHY STAY?

Our small Monastic Guest House has four bedrooms for up to five people and is available to members of the public, male and female aged 18 or over, who are seeking spiritual enrichment and for men considering becoming a monk. 

You will appreciate that we are not a bed and breakfast for tourism or other purposes and that there is plenty of nearby accommodation for this.

Whilst all visitors are always welcome at St Augustine's Abbey Chilworth for day or part day visits, you will have more time to reflect and pray as well as a better feel of monastic life if you stay overnight with us for a few days. 

You will be made to feel very welcome as a guest of the Abbey and you will stay in our small and very basic Guest House, which is just outside the monastic enclosure. We are a male religious order and, as such, there are restrictions on guests entering the monastic enclosure; thank you for your understanding. 

PLEASE DONATE FOR YOUR STAY

Donations to help cover the costs of your stay are welcome from those who can afford to pay (typically, minimum donations of £50 per person per night are given, Gift Aided if you would like to do so). Guests normally donate at the end of their stay.  Donations can be made HERE. 

WHAT TO EXPECT

Men considering becoming a monk and those on retreat will have some access to join the monks whilst they pray and work. Prayer and contemplation is the absolute focus of all that we do throughout every day with a deep and fundamental love of God in everything that we do.  

Nearly all guests who stay with us tell us that they are pleasantly surprised when they join the small community of monks when they have time to relax, something that isn't normally observed when they are in church praying. We are told that we are a very down to earth and normal group of people from many different backgrounds with a great feeling of community.  A sense of humour often prevails at the appropriate time. 

Having said that, we follow the Rule of Saint Benedict in our daily lives and we live a monastic life, which is rightly prescriptive.  

Silence is kept in the Cloister, the Abbey Church and the Refectory.

Guests are kindly asked not to enter those parts of the monastery reserved for the monastic community.

Conventual Mass is celebrated in the Abbey Church every weekday at 9am (10am on Sundays and Solemnities).

Divine Office takes place seven times daily in the Abbey Church. 

Guests are normally expected to attend Conventual Mass, Vespers and Compline every day of their stay.

The monastery is locked every night after Compline at 9pm.

MEAL TIMES AND FOOD

There are three meals a day provided to guests. Some guests will be invited to eat in the Monastic Refectory.  Guests are expected to eat what the monks eat and there is no menu choice as such.

Tea and coffee are freely available all of the time in the Guest House kitchen. 

Breakfast is not a formal meal and is taken in the Guest House dining room.

In the Monastic Refectory, Grace is sung in Latin before and after lunch and supper. When seated, brethren and guests wait for the Abbot to unfold his napkin before duly unfolding theirs. All meals in the monastic refectory are taken in silence, except on certain Solemnities (important feast days). During lunch, a monk reads aloud from the Sacred Scriptures, the Holy Rule of St Benedict and books of popular and religious interest. 

Adjacent to the Guest House kitchen is a small dining room for female guests to eat in at meal times where food will be served by one of the monks. The room is also used by those who are self catering.  

If you have any dietary requirements, you are kindly asked to provide fully for these needs and you are welcome to cater for yourself if that suits you better.

GUEST HOUSE FACILITIES

The Guest House sitting room, dining room and basic kitchen can be used at all times by guests for the preparation of hot drinks, quiet reading, meditation and general relaxation. Please wash, dry, and put away any crockery and cutlery used and feel welcome to ask Guest Master for extra supplies of milk, sugar, tea, coffee, etc. if needed. 

The small Guest House kitchen has a fridge with small freezer compartment, microwave combination oven, kettle and basic necessities such as milk, tea and coffee. There is cupboard space for food too. Please note that there is no cooker, grill or oven hob. Next door to the kitchen is a dining room with table and chairs. The sitting room is next door to this.

There is a single lavatory on the ground floor and a single shower on the first floor. 

ETIQUETTE

As this is a place of prayer and peace, we warmly invite all guests - men and women alike - to dress in a way that reflects the respectful and contemplative atmosphere of the monastery. Both formal and informal clothing is welcome; we simply ask that it be modest and suitable for a sacred space. For example, long trousers for men are preferred and we kindly suggest avoiding shorts in the church and in the refectory. Thank you for your understanding and sensitivity.

It is important that guests should address all questions directly to the Guest Master. This will ensure that the other brethren are not disturbed from their own monastic duties. 

If you are happy to do so, members of the monastic community are addressed in conversation by their respective titles, e.g. Dom Andrew or Father John (or 'Father' for short). The Abbot and his deputy are addressed, and referred to, as ‘Father Abbot’ and ‘Father Prior’.

DOGS AND PETS

To ensure a quiet, comfortable environment for everyone, the guesthouse is unable to receive pets. Assistance dogs and guide dogs are warmly welcomed.

We really hope you enjoy your stay. 

CLICK here to book a room - please email Dom Andrew at domandrewmcneill@gmail.com