Hopping on the bus at 9 in the morning on Saturday the second, we made our way through the Connemara National Park. Connemara is a gorgeous area known for their bogs, grasslands, and scenic mountains. We passed through Moycullen (known for the Connemara Marble Factory) and on through Oughterard (home of the famous Aughnanare castle, a well preserved tower house from the 16th century) and finally through Maam Cross and on through the mountains.
We arrived at the Kylemore Abbey around lunch time and immediately were in awe. The abbey consisted of a gigantic fortress, a gothic church, and a victorian walled garden. The Kylemore Abbey has been home to the Benedictine community of nuns moved from their original home in Ypres, Belgium during the beginning of WW1 after originally establishing in 1665. Since 1920 they have cultivated and preserved the estate which was home to a school as well, sadly that shut down two years ago. It is a pretty heavily visited area for tourists in Ireland, in fact we ran into a group of elderly women from Wisconsin while there.
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