Monte da Palhagueira

Monte da Palhagueira, run by the Amesbury Abbey Group, is a private English nursing home and retirement village set in a converted 19th-century Quinta in the hills at Gorjoes, Santa Barbara de Nexe, around ten minutes from Loule and twenty minutes from Faro airport. The nursing home occupies 16 rooms across two floors, many with private patios or balconies over the landscaped gardens, and offers assisted living, nursing, respite, convalescent and end-of-life care from a team of English-speaking, Portugal-registered nurses working 24 hours a day. One of the Amesbury Abbey Group's directors, Dr Rosemary Reid, is a medical doctor who oversees the home's medical policies, and the home works alongside The Family Medical Centre for 24-hour call-out cover and in-house clinics, plus visiting physiotherapists, hairdressing and beauty services. Residents have use of a dining room, a poolside terrace, a secluded swimming pool, and a minibus for local excursions, with social activities organised through the week. Rooms with an en-suite bathroom start from EUR 1,140 a week for single occupancy, or EUR 1,500 a week for couples sharing, both subject to a care needs assessment; short-stay and respite care starts from EUR 1,400 a week. Fees include housekeeping, an emergency call system, all meals, daily linen changes, use of the pool and grounds, and an in-house activities coordinator, with private doctor's visits, medication, physiotherapy and other services available at extra cost. Monte da Palhagueira sits within the wider Monte da Palhagueira retirement village of 33 properties across 22 acres, which the Amesbury Abbey Group also operates, with an on-site restaurant, clubhouse and the region's only consecrated Anglican church; the nursing home is open to both village residents and people living elsewhere.