When looking for sights in Ireland, one of the pictures you are sure to see is of the iconic Kylemore Abbey. The abbey was founded by Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium during the First World War, but the building has a much longer history.
Kylemore Castle was built in 1868 as a private residence for Mitchell Henry and his family. Henry was a wealthy doctor from London whose family were involved in textile manufacturing in England. After travelling to Ireland on their honeymoon in the mid-1840s, he and his wife Margaret purchased the land in Connemara and moved to Ireland. Henry also became a politician and was MP for County Galway from 1871 to 1885.
The house had 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom, billiard room, library, study, schoolroom, smoking room, gunroom and various offices and domestic staff residences for the butler, cook, housekeeper and other servants.
The castle was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1903, who resided there for several years before being forced to sell the house and grounds because of gambling debts.
During our visit to Ireland, we learned that Marconi was partly Irish and that he ran a radio station near Clifden. This station provided a regular transatlantic radio-telegraph service from 1907 with a station in Nova Scotia, Canada.
In 1920, Irish Benedictine Nuns purchased the castle and lands after they were forced to flee from Belgium. The nuns, who had been based in Ypres for several hundred years, had been bombed out of their Ypres Abbey during World War I.
The nuns ran a farm on the estate, where they raised livestock and vegetables. In 1923, they opened a boarding school and establishing a day school for girls from the area.
From Kylemore Abbey, we soon reached the lovely Killary Fjord and made our way past lakes and through mountains to Carrownisky Beach, where we enjoyed the good weather and watched the surfers.
Next we will reach Westport, where a splendid house awaits us. More soon!