7 June 2023
The Connemara area of Ireland has the most spectacular scenery, and we have been very lucky to see it in the best possible weather. This morning we started with an early morning drive along the Sky Road which offers stunning panoramic views over Clifden Bay and the offshore islands. People in Ireland seem to stay up late at night and get up late in the morning, so we had the drive pretty much to ourselves. Thank goodness because there were some very narrow sections with no real places to pass. It is considered one of the most beautiful roads in Ireland, and it wasn’t difficult to see why.
We thought that it would be difficult to top the Sky Road, but Kylemore Abbey gave it a good run for its money! Kylemore Castle was built in 1868 as a home for the Henry family, on the edge of a lake surrounded by soaring mountains. Kylemore Abbey is a Benedictine Monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of the castle by Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium in WWI, and until recently was also a Catholic girls boarding school. The grounds include the abbey which has very informative displays detailing the building’s history as both a family home and an abbey, a Gothic chapel built as a memorial for Mrs Henry, a 6-acre Victorian walled garden, and stunning woodlands and walking tracks. It was a lovely place to spend a few hours and felt very much like the Scottish Highlands with the abbey being nestled in a glacial valley surrounded by rocky mountains.
This evening we are staying in Banagher on the Shannon River, which is only a
couple of hours away from Dublin airport. The B&B we are staying in, Charlotte’s
Way, was built in the 1700s and is full of charm and character, with a
connection to the Bronte family.
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