Diamond Hill / Kylemore Abbey

We were picked up and after one and a half hour drive we arrived at
Diamond Hill which is located at the Connemara National Park in County
Galway. We did a hike around two hours up to the top of the mountain and
enjoyed the stunning panoramic view of the surrounding landscape,
including the Twelve Bens mountain range, the Atlantic Ocean, and the
picturesque Connemara countryside.

The last destination was Kylemore Abbey. It was built between 1863 and 1868 as a private home for the family of Mitchell Henry, a politician and businessman from Manchester who was also a member of the parliament for County Galway from 1871 to 1885. After the death of his beloved wife Margaret in 1875, due to untreated water poisoning on a holiday in Egypt, Mitchell built a mausoleum to bury his wife and after that he did not remain in the mansion for long and it was eventually transformed into an abbey when some Benedictine nuns fled from Ypres (Belgium) during the First World War.
The abbey housed an international boarding school for girls which was closed in 2010, and now it’s open for tourism duties. We had a tour through besides the Pollacappal Lake which is surrounded by forrest and hills.
hills. The abbey itself houses a Gothic church, craft shop and a cafe.Læs mere