The monastic ruins of Leiston Abbey are among the most impressive in Suffolk. The choir and transepts maintain much of their original height and most of the cloister range, with adjoining chapter house and refectory and store house, survive. Home to Augustinian canons who followed the Premonstratensian rule, they date from the 14th century replacing an earlier nearby building that was built on coastal marshland and suffered badly from flooding.

After being suppressed in 1537 and granted to the Duke of Suffolk, the site was converted into a farm. A house was built into the corner of the nave and north transept. This received a new facade during the Georgian period and it is currently owned by a music school.