Quiet, charming and serene, the Butley River's extensive areas of saltmarsh and reedbed border the intertidal mudflats, home to avocet, curlew, redshank, black tailed godwit and wintering ducks such as wigeon and teal. The river flows into the Ore (part of the Alde Estuary) shortly after it divides around Havergate Island.

The waterway is a prime breeding ground for the succulent Gigas Pacific oysters which are farmed along its banks – available from the Butley Orford Oysterage in Orford. The fish shop and adjoining seafood restaurant are situated at Market Hill, Orford while the company also has a smokehouse alongside the river.

At one time there was a town of Butley as well as a thriving priory. Once a stronghold of Augustin monks, founded by Ranulph de Glanville in 1171, the splendid 14th century gatehouse to the Butley Priory with its interesting flintwork and baronial carvings can still be seen today. The village has a working mill, remarkable for its fine Regency porch and the Norman parish church with a fine 14th century tower. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths Path (a long distance path from the Essex border to Lowestoft at the northern end of Suffolk) runs past Butley and along this footpath is Burrow Hill, a middle Saxon burial mound.

Butley Barns on Mill Lane houses both the Butley Pottery (consisting of workshops and a thatched pottery showroom) and The Barn Café. The latter (opens from mid-February through to the end of October) offers morning coffees, teas and an enticing selection of home-cooked lunches. For some really good Suffolk beers visit The Oyster Inn at Butley, a cosy little pub dating back to the 18th century with a dining area and the Butley Room decorated with nostalgic photographs of villagers.

Following the straight road from Butley to Rendlesham Forest you will pass the Butley Clumps, an avenue of trees known as Quincunx, made up of clumps of four beech trees with a pine at the centre of each clump. Few of these wonderful clumps remain but on those that do you can see the outline of old sailing boats, thought to be the work of sailors returning from the burial of one of their number.

One mile west of Butley is the ancient oak woodland of Staverton Thicks, containing some of the oldest oaks and tallest holly trees in the country. This was a thriving deer park in the 16th century much loved by Queen Mary who came here for hunting parties and picnics.

The river takes its name from the old town and Augustinian Priory founded in 1171 by Ranulph de Glanville (then a minor official in the government of Henry II.) In its greatest period, writes Sheila Harrison, author of Butley Priory 1171-1538 the priory precinct contained a square-towered church, cloisters built of Purbeck marble, the priors lodging, a refectory, an infirmary, dormitories, kitchens and outbuildings, surrounded by a flint wall and entered through the Priory Gatehouse.

All that remains today is the Gatehouse (built using stone from Caen in France) together with an arch which formed part of the south transept of the Priory Church.

View from the river bank of the Butley River, near Orford