🏰 🌸 “KYLEMORE ABBEY/ CASTLE and its Victorian Walled Garden 🌼🌹” in Connemara County Galway - Ireland 🇮🇪 PART 1 ~ Wednesday Walk

Hi all 👋🏻

Today I want to share with you a walk around the #VICTORIAN #WALLED #GARDEN from #KYLEMORE #ABBEY / #CASTLE in #CONNEMARA #COUNTY #GALWAY ~ #IRELAND 🇮🇪

As it was raining for days and I was craving a walk, I studied the weather app in the morning to see if we could OUTRUN the #rain 🌧️🌧️🌧️ 😎
I found that, if we would drive 1 hour and 40 minutes to the west of where we live. It should be dry.
After knowing that, I looked what was there and I found Kylemore Abbey 🏰 PERFECT FOR A WALK!
So… that was our plan for this rainy Sunday not long ago 😊

The estate of Kylemore Abbey is soooooo large I will divide my walk around the grounds, abbey, gothic church and the things I saw wandering in multiple posts.
So we can focus on them better 😋

With this post I’m joining in at the Wednesday Walk challenge and Make me Smile challenge. That are hosted by @tattoodjay and @elizacheng every week on Wednesday.

‼️Have a look: Here in the Wednesday Walk Community if you want to join in!… the community is run by @tattoodjay.
Look at his last Wednesdaywalk post here: “Wednesday Walk Seaport Art Walk New Bedford“
It will tell you also the rules of joining at the Wednesday walk posts 😁 come join us! It is fun!

Today’s selection will be of 61 PHOTOGRAPHS
Date: 16 July 2023.
The Photographs in this post are all taken with my iPhone 📱🤓
I will follow the time stamps on them. So it looks like you are experiencing my adventures on this #walk, to 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻 #discover everything what I saw, like the little #details seen through my eyes and observe with me the stunning #castle, #lake, #mountains and #scenery, # flowers, #trees, #wildflowers, in the #walledgarden of this #estate wandering along the #paths. 😊
Part of the walk I did last week @papilloncharity, @flaxz and @tydynrain we talked about.

The location of KYLEMORE ABBEY and THE WALLED GARDEN you can find on the following screenshot of Google maps with the yellow stars ⭐️:

See how large the estate is?

Zooming out for you on Google maps we see it’s location compared with Galway city:

More information about this ESTATE you find in the following website:
Wikipedia - Kylemore Abbey

It states;

Kylemore Abbey (Irish: Mainistir na Coille Móire) is a Benedictine Monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle, in Connemara, Co. Galway, Ireland. The Abbey was founded for Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium in World War 1.

Kylemore Castle was built in 1868 as a private home for the family of Mitchell Henry

The castle was designed by James Franklin Fuller, aided by Samuel Ussher Roberts. The construction of the castle began in 1867, and took the total of one hundred men and four years to complete. The castle covered approximately 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) and had over seventy rooms with a principal wall that was two to three feet thick. The facade measures 142 feet (43 m) in width.

More information you find in the Wikipedia page. It is interesting to read 🤓 a bit up on it. (If you have time of course 😉)

Their own website you find here : Kylemore Abbey!

So after driving the 1h 40min 🚗🚗🚗 with lots of rain and wind along the way… 🌬️🌧️ we reached the entrance of the large estate.
Believe it or not, IT WAS DRY 🥳

We parked the car on the large parking 🅿️

And see a glimpse through the trees… 🌳🌲🌳🌲

LET’S START OUR WALK, are you coming along?

Let’s go……. 😊

We see the castle that is now an abbey.
It’s location: nestled against the mountain surrounded by old trees 🌳 and a lake in front of it.

How romantic 🥰

As we walk further towards the entrance for tickets 🎫 we see:

I just love its location. The white of the granite is such a contrast with it’s surroundings. Wow 🤩

I zoom in for you, stunning isn’t it?

The information sign shows the Kylemore Estate and the attractions you want to see.

We are at ”you are here” if you look above it, you find a symbol of a BUS 🚌

Yep, you heard me well…. This estate has a BUS 🚌 service going between the ABBEY and its WALLED GARDEN 😳

We decided to take the bus to the walled garden and we will walk back later. As we want to see the entire estate we do this for time reasons 😋

But first let me show you some more photos from the castle/ abbey and its surroundings.

The lake/ POLLACAPPUL LOUGH

We are slowly walking closer and the angle of my photos change 😎

Mountains all around us even in the distance.

I see this tower in the distance… it turned out to be a GOTHIC CHURCH and it is part of the estate, I show you in another post 😉

Love the layers of the mountains. Look at their forms… ⛰️

Another close up of the building, you see more details now. As you know, I love details 🥰

And some #artistic #photos… yep… coming right up 😇

Let’s focus on the abbey.

And now on the #treebark

Last photo of the ABBEY for now… I will show you more in another post 🤓 we will go inside too 😉

At the ticket office we see these displays… this one shows you a little bit from the GOTHIC CHURCH.

After we paid 💶 for our entrances… we get a little booklet with more information and some estate plans.

As said… today we visit THE VICTORIAN WALLED GARDEN

The booklet tells us;

One of the few formal Walled Gardens cultivated in an Irish bog, Kylemore's Victorian Walled Garden uniquely uses plants and flowers that were introduced to Ireland before 1901.

The 6-acre garden contained a 21 glasshouse complex, pleasure and Kitchen Gardens, Head Gardener's House, Workers' Bothy and Lime Kiln.
A stream divides the enclosed section of the Garden into two distinct areas; the Kitchen Garden and Flower Garden.

The Garden was built on a south slope at the foot of Dúchruach mountain and was reputed to be a 'regular sun trap. The site was carefully chosen for its awe inspiring and dramatic setting, backing onto the mountain and facing Diamond Hill. This was the warmest and brightest spot on the estate. The natural fall of the land and underlying gravel allowed for drainage and a mountain stream provided water.

JUST WHAT YOU NEED FOR A GARDEN TO DO WELL 😊

At the ‘garden entrance’ we find these MONTEREY PINES

Love the texture…

In the distance we see the ‘main entrance’.

I try to get the entire tree in the photo, but it is large and I am too close by hehehe 🤭

Beautiful form…

We enter the walled garden… and see a beautiful manicured area. With the flowing land in the distance.

We walk towards the glass houses…

The first one is large, we see we can enter…

Next to the entrance we see broken ceramic pots…

Our view around.

The plants 🪴 inside the glasshouse. 🥰

Walking further we find a tool shed next to a Bothy.

Tools that they used long ago…

And a display of what they found on the estate. Ranging from clay pipes, keys to glass bottles.

At the top we find the ‘ head gardener’s house’

And we enter the kitchen garden 🥦🥬🫛🫑🥕🍅🍐🍏🧅

We see fruit trees 🌳

And many veggies…

It looks well maintained.

Next we see the ‘Herb Garden’

Even some ‘Medicinal Herbs’

Behind the ‘Walled Garden’ is an ‘Oak Plantation’

The trees are covered with #lichen and #moss 🌳

Walking past some flower borders… 🌼🌸🌼🌸

The amount of flowers is overwhelming.

As you know add #alwaysaflower to your post 🥰😎
Says Denise @dswigle

Let’s enjoy some flowers around us : 😋

So many different flowers, some I don’t know.
I love the amount of #bees 🐝 flies 🪰 and other #insects all over…

Lily’s… such a pretty colour.

And of course I couldn’t forget the bumble bee 🐝

The amount of paths through this walled garden is large. One could spend a while here. You can rest and enjoy the scenery on one of the benches spread around 😊 watch the world go by….

Some areas are covered with the vegetation.

Like the ‘Fernery’

Old trees… 🌳🌳🌳🌳

More flowers 🌸

So after this tour around the Walled Victorian Garden we walk towards the ‘Garden Entrance’ again and have a higher view this time over the grounds.

Such a large place… stay tuned for more from Kylemore Abbey Estate 😉

…and here I say that’s all for today’s post my friends.
Join me next time for more #updates, #adventures, #stories and #photographs 😎👋🏻
Even my own #artworks, once in a while, will come by” 🎨
Thank you so much for looking, and reading.

#ecency banner by @irisworld

Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.

Have a great Wednesday all 😎
Grtz Jackie

The divider by SilverFish / mondoshawan

Unless stated otherwise: All art and photos used in my posts are taken, created and owned by me. If you wish to use any of my photographs, please contact me first. As I have used some commercially myself. We don’t want that you or somebody else gets into trouble 😉 So please don’t use them without my consent.

🖼 My PRINTSHOP: for the purchase of all kind of prints in many sizes from my Artworks 🎨 and Photography 📸 Which come on different objects too. Have a look in My Prints Shop!

If you want to see where I traveled to and what I already shared in @pinmapple, have a look at my personal map here: Littlebee4 PINMAPPLE MAP

#ecency image by @brittandjosie

!pinmapple 53.56265 lat -9.88967 long 🏰 🌸 “KYLEMORE ABBEY/ CASTLE and its Victorian Walled Garden 🌼🌹” in Connemara County Galway - Ireland 🇮🇪 PART 1 ~ Wednesday Walk d3scr