Day Trip to Aughnanure Castle and Kylemore Abbey

 We had a typical Irish summer’s day of sunshine and showers for our day trip to Aughnaure Castle, Oughterard, home of the ferocious O’fflaherties, followed by a welcome cup of tea and freshly baked scones at Oughterard Golf Club.

We then toured west leaving behind us the lush green foliage and fast flowing Owenriff river at Oughterard outwards to the wide expanse of the granite countryside of Connemara with its towering Maam Turk and Twelve Ben mountains: the tops of which were shrouded in mist.

Arriving at Kylemore Abbey we had a guided tour of the Abbey originally built by Mitchell Henry as a gift to his wife Margaret. The magnificent Baronial Castle is now home to the Benedictine nuns. We visited the ‘Minature Cathedral’ in Neo Gothic style built by Henry in memory of his wife Margaret who died tragically on a visit to Egypt. Now both Henry and Margaret rest side by side in the Mausoleum adjacent to the Gothic Church.

 

A visit to the restored Victorian Walled Garden an oasis of 6 acres where ordered flower and vegetable beds are arranged against the back-drop of wild Connemara Mountains. You can visit the Head Gardener’s House, Bothy and Glasses Houses where you see bananas, grapes growing just as they did in 1890. Afterwards we enjoyed refreshments in the Tea House looking out over the garden.

 

It was a good day and showers didn’t dampen our spirits as we came to see Kylemore and its surroundings as a work of love carried out through the generations. A magnificent and awesome place indeed!

Mary Kyne