Kylemore Abbey: A Wild Irish Rose
Connemara, Ireland is a place of rough hewn mountains, ancient peatlands and stories and legends that have lingered down to modern times. One of these legends–the love a local landowner had for his wife–remains today because of the stunning place of prayer and peace he built to remember her.
Kylemore Abbey is today a working place of prayer and education for an order of originally Belgian-based Benedictine nuns who have made it their home since World War I.
The Abbey sits on one of the region’s many loughs (lakes) and was originally built in the 1870s by local landowner Mitchell Henry.
Henry bought the land and erected a typical neo-gothic castle for his beloved wife and children. When his wife, Margaret died of typhoid on a tour of Egypt, Henry erected a mausoleum and a chapel on the estate and dedicated himself to helping locals recover from famine and poverty and to being an enlightened landlord and one of the first to establish a school for his worker’s children.
Today, the Abbey is owned by an Irish order of the Benedictines and is still a place of prayer and pilgrimage. Visitors can tour the original castle home of the Henrys as well as the chapel and the Abbey’s Victorian Walled Garden—very much like the Secret Garden of children’s literature fame.
The Abbey sponsors religious retreats and seminars year-round in its mission to promote education and spiritual guidance in the local community and beyond.
Gretchen Kelly
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