Katie Wanders : Ireland Day 8: Connemara and Kylemore Abbey

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Ireland Day 8: Connemara and Kylemore Abbey

Our last full day in Ireland was spent driving around the beautiful Connemara area to experience the National Park and the famous Kylemore Abbey. This area of Ireland was so beautiful and we didn't have enough time to explore it. The abbey itself is about an hour and 15 minutes from downtown Galway making it the perfect day trip if you have a car. If you don't have a car, there are a lot of options for tour busses heading out to the abbey and around the coast.

We made our way to the abbey driving the loop, passing through the rocky, barren mountainous terrain. that Connemara is known for. We were blown away by just how beautiful and untouched a lot of this part of Ireland was. The Pine Island Viewpoint off N59 was the perfect pit stop to take in the views in the area. This is the point where we vowed to come back to Ireland to spend a few days exploring this area alone.

Pine Island Viewpoint

Clifden Ice Cream

We stopped first in Clifden for lunch and ice cream. We spent some time walking around the scenic little town, finding a playground of course, and enjoying the Irish food. After leaving Clifden, we drove over to Kylemore Abbey to explore the abbey and the surrounding property.

The reflection of the abbey on the lake was as beautiful as the pictures promised and we soaked in the views. We then went on a walking tour through the abbey, over to the garden where the kids played in the ferry garden and we saw the beautiful Connemara ponies in the distance. Connemara ponies are sure footed and sturdy to Connemara's mountainous terrain. They are one of Ireland's most famous breeds and the area is all about the ponies, the national park, and the abbey.

Kylemore Abbey was originally known as Kylemore Castle, built in 1868 as a private home for a wealthy doctor from London. Kylemore Abbey as we know it today is a Benedictine Monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle as a refuge for Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium in World War I. Kylemore Abbey is still active with Benedictine nuns and a section of the Abbey is retained strictly for the nuns’ use and is not open to the public. The property is also known for it's Victorian walled gardens but it is truly the abbey reflection on the lake that will take your breath away. You can also walk through the castle/abbey which has historical costumes, and beautifully restored period rooms. With the kids, we sort of quickly walked through the abbey itself and spent more time outside in the gardens and walking around the property.

Ater Kylemore Abbey, we cut back through R344 along Lough Inagh where we took in the views of the lake and the free roaming sheep that make the Irish landscape so iconic.