Wednesday 28 June in Clifden

I can’t seem to add pictures to my blog at the moment. I hope to add them later. 

We woke early and walked in to Clifden, having breakfast at Walsh’s Cafe and then shopping for some groceries. At Walsh’s, we found a brochure for Kylemore Abbey in Connemara. It sounded interesting, so we went over there. Driving on the left of a narrow highway is quite an experience!  

Kylemore Abbey was built as a castle in the mid 1800’s and passed through a couple of owners. King George V looked at it but decided it was too expensive for a king. Meanwhile in Ypres, Belgium in the mid 1600’s, Benedictine nuns set up a school for Irish young ladies, in light of anti-Catholic laws. In World War I, the Abbey in Ypres was destroyed and in the early 1920’s, the nuns returned to Ireland, bought the castle and set up their school. The school ran until 2010 and the nun’s still maintain the property. In addition to the Abbey, there is a small Gothic Church, and a Victorian Walled Garden. We walked around a lot and had lunch at the tea room near the garden. 

We returned to the house and had cheese, crackers and wine.