Alex AttanasioTuesday, January 12th, 2016 Blog:
Kylemore Abbey in the Connemara Mountains
Today, we went to the Connemara Mountains and got to see and learn about the Kylemore Abbey. On our way to the Abbey, we took a quick stop on the side of the road to admire the landscape around us. In every direction, there was a different set of completely enormous, breathtaking mountains.
Prior to Connemara, most of the landscape that we have witnessed was either flat fields or various levels of rocky terrain, but we had yet to see anything quite like these mountains. A few of the peaks were powdered with snow, but most were just a faded green. We all snapped some pictures and continued on our way straight into the mountains.
As we approached the Abbey, we could see it across a glistening blue like nestled into a mountain. The grey castle looked like something out of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe with it’s stone walls and towers. It was cold out, but luckily the sun was shining and the sky was blue.
Once inside the Abbey, we learned that it was built in 1867 and the Duke and Duchess of Manchester took control of it in 1903. In the early 20’s the nuns of the Benedictine Community had acquired the property and turned it into a boarding school for young girls which taught students until 2010 when they officially closed the doors due to a lack of students. Now it is still the home of a few sisters of the church, but it mostly serves as a tourist destination.
The inside of the Abbey was set up with similar furnishings as there would have been when the Duke and Duchess were there and during the early years of the boarding school. We saw classrooms, the dining room, the library, and the foyer. On our way to the hotel, we travelled back through the mountains and got a quick glimpse of a bog where people had been harvesting peat or turf to burn for heat.
