A castle, a mine, and an abbey

Left Galway and visited the Aughnanure Castle, complete with its own watch dog through the wall. Very cute.

As we drove towards Clifden, we saw a sign to the Glengowla mine... so why not. It was a below ground mine that operated between 1850 and 1865 to mine for Galena (lead sulphite) that was used to make bullets during one of the wars. Went down 40m and it was only 8⁰... chilly. Panned for fools gold and had a look around.

Then a nice drive around through Clifden. The next stop was the Kylemore Abbey and Victorian Walled Garden. Again, hadnt heard of it but by the packed parking lots it must have been good. About 10 tourist coaches... and it was. It is still an abbbey run by Benedictine Nuns and opened to the public.
The original Abbey used to be the home of Mitchell and Margaret Henry and their 9 children. Mitchell was a politician at Westminster. Their mausoleum is on the site and a neo-gothic church that was built by Mitchell in the memory of Margaret when she died unexpectedly. It had beautiful pillars made from 4 different coloured marble. Mitchell lived another 36 years after her.
Then there is the Victorian Walled Garden that contained nearly every fruit and vegetable you could imagine and originally it had 21 glasshouses. Mum, you would have loved this one!!!
15834 steps
12.28kms
24⁰... they are saying it could be sunny through most of Ireland for another 2 or 3 weeks.🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️ Czytaj więcej