The major destination of our tour was Kylemore Castle which is now Kylemore Abbey, the monastic home of Benedictine nuns. Though it is a monastery now, the original castle completed in 1871,as a symbol of love, was a honeymoon castle, constructed by Mitchell Henry for his wife Margaret. Gosh, how I wished to be Margaret, for a while!! I have lost count of the no:of castles I saw here in Ireland, not to mention the one in our town centre, Athlone Castle.
Now coming back to Kylemore Castle, for me it was like seeing something coming out live from a fairy tale. Every room in there was fully furnished and arranged as if some one has just left the room, just before we came in. The huge mantelpieces were twice taller than me. Me and hubby got separated once we went inside, and there weren’t any other visitors. I ran around from one room to another, too excited to find later that I was lost. Every room was like magic for me. I was in a daze. The light, the candles, the red carpets, the wooden shining walls, the white table cloths, the chandeliers everything made me feel as though I was in another world. There wasn’t any one, even to supervise. Of course, there would have been hidden CCTVs.
Kylemore Castle
That is me, standing exactly where Magaret Henry would have stood gazing at her castle, 1000 times!
There is a Victorian walled garden in the Kylemore Estate(which is 13,ooo acres!!!) which even had glass houses. Now it is in the restoring phase. But it still looked perfect.
The white house on the right hand far corner is the 18th century glass house!
This stream is also part of the garden!
..from another angle. 
There was a kind of summer-house in the garden for the Henry’s, and this seemed to be their living room. The view from this room to the garden is breath-taking.
That’s me waiting for the shuttle bus that took us from the Castle to the garden. Yea, you just can’t walk into the garden, its too far. Remember 13,000 acre premises! to be cond....Part 3, in next blog.
i m reading.
ReplyDeletewow, amazing one... the castle seems to be part of heaven or something. People in those days were real royal in every ways...
ReplyDeletegarden of 13,000 acres.... mind blowing...
Waiting for more.
a garden of 13000 acres:-o mind blowing...
ReplyDeleteda castle is too gud.. i wish i were thr inside da castle nowwwwwwwww...:D
da garden too is looking awsome.. i liked this pic esp...da 7th 1;)
da living room is really gud...:)
First snap really took my breath away... that is awsome... i thought such castles existed only in fairy tales and imagination... but seeing the snap of a real one.... gosh...
ReplyDeletenow decided... i have added galway as a destinattion for my proposed europe tour... gosh i feel that a week tourwill not be enough to cover the region... i have been adding on destinations...
13000 acres... is that a typing mistake????? did u add an extra zero???? as the previous comments say.. MIND BLOWING
Wow..really amazing! :)
ReplyDeletewow great..is that the castle where they shot star wars? there is a scene were the Senator lady and the Skywalker looking at the lake in the second part of the movie i guess, and ur picture reminds me of that...:)
ReplyDeleteYes, these pictures seem to jump at us straight out of a Fairy Tale!
ReplyDeletewow ive always dreamt of living in castles :-D Am happy for you that u were able to see. It indeed looks like a fairy tale castle. Oh my!!! look at that stream. Somehow i really loved that pic more. I felt as though am sittin right under that tree and gazing at the stream. It really looks heavenly. Thanks a million for sharing these pics with us. The summer house also feels warm and cozy... Awesome pics on the whole. (((((hugs)))))
ReplyDeleteBabs!
wow... good place... love the place...
ReplyDeletehai strange.. no ppl there only one girl is in the place...
soo peaceful place...
where are the other ppl swathi
I din read a thing you wrote. The pics are sooooooooooooooooooooo nice. Lemme read and come now..okei.
ReplyDeleteyea read it :-). WOW you must have had real fun to see this entire thing. It is soooo coool! I liked all the pics especially the first one. Itz the best!! and I also loved the stream wala pic :-)
ReplyDeleteget ready to handle the second kid !...*** hope you rem everything **
ReplyDeleteSwats !.... you know whst in my mind !..so not writing ! **winks** ..Take care my sis !
ReplyDeleteHei Swathi.
ReplyDeleteKylemore Abbey is so 'Sound of Music'- the film - kind of place
which I absolutely love to visit every time I am in Connemara!!
Great shots. You look sooo frozen, Swathi.
Take care and do keep warm. Rii xx
Castle !...well I'm unfortunate enuf not to see one till now!..photos are very nice Margaret..i mean swathi!
ReplyDeleteI loved those gardens... And how did you find your hubby back in that Kylemore castle?
ReplyDeleteRii: Frozen, is not the word..I was dripping in ice-cold water(u know it better!). But sunday we had snowfall and later gail... so, i think rain was very much bearable, when compared to that! but think about those kids in parade!
ReplyDeletemanziie: thanks a lot....i really wished if i was her....for a while
Pinx: it sure seems part of heaven! its unexplainable...! yes, there is more....
ReplyDeletedeyyam: castle was really mind-blowing...i mean i cant find the exact word!!
anooj: i too believed like you, till i saw this...it sure is 13000 acres, i have proof, will post later.
deeps; yes, it sure is
lishma: star wars....no, i dont think so. if so, the guide would have told us. he told about another movie in the 50's.. "the QuietMan", which won an oscar!
sankaran: ...and i felt like a princess!
babs: it was wonderful babs...so much so that even at subzero temperature i was wet in rain...in my excitement, i didnt feel the cold at all!!
rinku: yes, only we were there...other visitors were not there!
amrita: thanks..dear!
cheesy: errmm...i am going out of the country for while, may be for some x no: of mths ....
Sab: after 5-10 minutes being lost (honestly i didnt mind being lost , there!). i heard him yelling my name as echo, some where downstairs...and finally met each other....(i didnt try to find him, though ***winks**!)
ReplyDeletebeautiful.
ReplyDeletemakes me want to stop over on my way to the US.
oh some other time perhaps... there's work to do :(
Hei again.
ReplyDeleteI know! I was thinking of them poor folks doing the ST PAT'S Parade in their skimpy outfits...BRRR.
The parades are best seen on the telly, methinks. The weather there in March is always terrible, always.
But the Daffodils make it look so spring-like that people forget that tis CHILLY!
Take care and do keep well. Rii xx
All the pictures are lovely but I especially like the first one. It looks so magical. I want to see how this place looks like in the summer. I bet it has a lot of flowers. I can see them budding.
ReplyDeleteWow!!!!! Awesome pics!! Jnan theerchayaayum varum. Swapnam kanaallo alle??
ReplyDeleteBTW, aa randamathe photyil kaanunna sundari kutty aara?? Lovely subject, lovely picture!! :-)
Awsome!! Thank you for sharing....
ReplyDeletewow...Place is too Good and Pic as well..
ReplyDelete