Malmesbury is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately 14 miles west of Swindon, 25 miles northeast of Bristol, and 9 miles north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upper waters of the Bristol Avon and one of its tributaries. Once the site of an Iron Age fort, in the early medieval period Malmesbury became the site of Malmesbury Abbey, a monastery famed for its learning.