Abbotsbury Swannery

Abbotsbury Swannery is a colony of nesting mute swans near the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. Located on a 1-hectare site around the Fleet Lagoon protected from the weather of Lyme Bay by Chesil Beach, it is the only managed swannery in the world, and can number over 600 swans with around 150 pairs. Written records of the swannery's existence go back to 1393, though it probably existed well before that and is believed to have been set up by Benedictine monks in the eleventh century.