Kylemore Abbey

As well as the being an iconic building in a beautiful location, Kylemore Abbey is also home to the Sisters of the Benedictine Order, in Ireland, since 1920. Today it is still a working Abbey where the sisters live, work, pray and welcome visitors from around the world.

Hidden in the woods you will also find the stunning Gothic Church built for Margaret Henry the woman who inspired the building of Kylemore Castle in the late 1860’s. Her husband Mitchell Henry was an entrepreneur, surgeon, politician and social reformer who transformed this area of bog land in the desolate west into a virtual paradise of comfort and innovation in the 1800’s. Tragically Margaret died at the age of 45 while on holiday to Egypt in 1874. Henry returned to Kylemore where he lived until 1903 and was finally laid to rest by Margaret’s side, in the little mausoleum on the grounds of the Estate.