Kylemore Abbey
Victorian Castle Built 1867 1871 For Mitchell Henry, Home Of Benedictine Nuns Since 1920, With A Neo Gothic Church And A Six Acre Victorian Walled Garden · Letterfrack, Galway
Kylemore Abbey (Mainistir na Coille Moire) is a grey granite Victorian castle on the shore of Pollacappul Lough in north Connemara, backed by a steep wooded mountain, and it is one of the most photographed buildings in Ireland. It was built between 1867 and 1871 for Mitchell Henry, a wealthy doctor and later MP for Galway, as a family home; after his wife Margaret died in 1874 he added a small neo-Gothic church in her memory and a mausoleum in the woods where both now lie. Since 1920 it has been the home of a community of Benedictine nuns who came from Ypres in Belgium after the First World War and ran a girls' boarding school here until 2010. Visitors see the restored ground-floor rooms, an exhibition on the nuns' story, the church, the lakeside and woodland walks and the six-acre Victorian Walled Garden, reached by shuttle bus. The honest caveat: it is a paid, busy stop on every Connemara coach tour, the house visit covers only a few rooms, and the midday crowd can make the lakeside path feel like a queue.
Kylemore Abbey and Victorian Walled Garden, N59 about 4 km east of Letterfrack, Connemara, County Galway, Letterfrack, Galway, Ireland
Open all year except 24-26 December. Roughly 9 or 9.30 am to about 5.30 or 6 pm from spring to autumn, and roughly 10 am to 4.30 pm in winter, with last admission about an hour before closing and the walled garden sometimes closing earlier or partly in the dark months - confirm current hours. Tickets are booked online for a date, and the same ticket covers the abbey rooms, church, grounds, garden and shuttle. It is on the N59 about 4 km east of Letterfrack: roughly 1 hour 30 minutes by car from Galway and 1 hour 15 minutes from Westport. Some Citylink or Bus Eireann coaches run Galway-Clifden-Letterfrack in season - confirm; most people drive or come on a Galway day tour. The car park is free for visitors.