
Moving on, we next stopped at the beautiful Kylemore Abbey. There is quite a beautiful and yet sad story that surro

Unfortunately by the time it was finished, Margaret had only a short while to enjoy it. In 1874, the couple travelled to Egypt where Margaret fell ill with dysentery and died leaving behind nine children and a husband with a broken heart. In her honor, he built a beautiful Neo-Gothic church to the east of the castle in her memory. That was where we began our tour.
The church has been wonderfully restored. The before and after pictures are amazing. There is every type of marble found in the Connemara area used in the decoration of the church. One of the stained glass windows made quite an impression on me and I posted about it as one of my Sunday Worship Thoughts.

Moving back to the main building which is now an Abbey run by Benedictine nuns, we began learning more about the history of Kylemore. Eventually, in 1903, the Henry's castle was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester--King Edward VII having passed on it saying it was too expensive for a king. The Duke was actually broke from gambling debts and it was his wife's father, an American oil baron, who footed the bill for the castle. The castle passed through several hands until finally in 1

There was until recently a famous international boarding school run by the nuns with such noted attendees as Angelica Houston and Indian Princesses of the Maharaja Ranjit. The Benedicti

By the time we were on our way to the gardens of Kylemore, the sun was breaking out and, as the Irish say, it was going to be a glorious day. The 6 acre walled garden was blooming with color even though it was late in the year. The garden was quite innovative in its original building as there were steam pipes that connected to the greenhouses (two of which have been rebuilt) to give heat. We peeked into the gardener and head gardener's houses, the first being called a bothy (a hut or small cottage). As you can see in the pictures, rank had its privileges.
After a bowl of soup and the ever popular Irish brown bread, we continued on toward our destination for the night, Westport. We had been warned by other travelers we'd met that we would see lots of sheep in Connemara and that we did--close up!
The peat bogs were everywhere as well. The peat is dug up, dried, and used as fuel. It has a funky smell though that I found hard to place. Definitely not a wood fire, it was almost like burning oil.

As we reached the mountainous area where we would find Croagh Patrick, the mountain on which it is said St. Patrick fasted for 40 days and the

As we passed Croagh Patrick, we caught a glimpse of a white object way up on the summit. It was the statue of St. Patrick that pilgrims

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