Kylemore Abbey

On our second day in Connemara, we drove to see Kylemore Abbey. The abbey is currently a boarding school for girls. Let me just say, I would love to be a student here, wouldn’t you? The estate was originally built for the owner’s wife, who passed away. Then it was converted to the abbey, and finally the boarding school. The abbey overlooks a gorgeous lake, surrounded by mountains. It’s quiet, serene, and it has a wonderful walkway along the lake where you can see mountain waterfalls and even a statue of Jesus with his arms raised out, tucked away in the mountain. Several trees are numbered, and it’s our guess that these were likely part of a botany or biology class for students to identify.

Further down the walk, you come to a miniature cathedral. The architecture is Gothic, and inside, there are marble columns from each part of Ireland. The Cathedral was just beautiful inside, and they played soft, reflective music by a girls’ choir.

You can see a picture of the columns and the interior of the church here:

One of my other books is set in Victorian England, and it was fascinating to see the interior of the Kylemore estate. The first room you enter has items belonging to the abbey and priestly garments. The next room would most likely be considered the drawing room. I have these three pictures of the interior. Some of my favorite items were the chess set, the piano, and the bookcases. And last, but not least, who could resist eating in a dining room like this one? There were signs warning visitors to stay away from the dining room table (which held real silver and Waterford crystal). An alarm system was in place to protect it.

After we finished touring the estate, we continued to the formal gardens. There were formal gardens like in this photograph, and if you look at the very back, you’ll see a glass house. There’s nothing in the middle, but it used to be a glass house that spanned the entire width of the formal gardens. They’re in the process of trying to rebuild it the way it used to be. All sorts of exotic plants like a Monkey’s puzzle tree and these large Brazilian plants, were growing. Inside the glass house were varieties of tomato, peppers, and strange yellow cucumbers. They also had grape vines.

In the second section of the gardens, there was every kind of fruit, vegetable, and herb you could think of. Orchards were on one side, while other sections held strawberries. There were vegetables to include potatoes, zucchini, and squash. I can imagine the boarding school girls having to tend a small plot, just to keep a garden of this size going!

What’s the most exotic thing you’ve ever grown in a garden?