Best Day Out: ‘I still get a jolt when I see Kylemore Abbey’

‘Like many Connemara people, I experience a sort of smug satisfaction in introducing friends to a place I know they’ll love’

The Irish Times is on the hunt for Ireland’s greatest visitor attractions, and we’ve asked our readers to help, by recommending great ways to spend a day in Ireland. Eithne O’Halloran still loves her old school . . .

No matter how many times I drive over that bridge between the lakes I still get a jolt when I see Kylemore Abbey gazing back at me from across the water. It doesn’t matter that I live over the road from it, that I went to school there, and that I know almost every nook and cranny of it, I never tire of that view.

Like many Connemara people, I get a kick out of the reaction from friends whom I bring there. I also experience a sort of smug satisfaction in introducing them to a place I know they are going to love.

Before we start exploring, a stop a the café is essential for a good coffee and one of those massive fluffy scones made by Imelda Hyland, who seems to have mastered the perfect-every-time knack. Add too much butter, too much cream and too much raspberry jam and we’re fuelled.

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First an amble around the Abbey itself. If I’m with friends who haven’t been before we will listen to a history talk in the front hall. As a Downton Abbey freak I love imagining what life was like here in the past.

I also love the décor in the drawing room, including a vestment made from the cloak of a Spanish princess , not what you expect to find on a day out in Connemara.

After the Abbey it’s off along the avenue by the lake and over to visit the Gothic church: gorgeous, sad and romantic. The interior is beautifully carved with flowers and angels and jewel coloured stained glass.

The Henrys who built Kylemore are buried in a little mausoleum further along the avenue and it seems only right to go and see them every time I visit.

I’m not usually superstitious but no matter what the weather is like we have to continue a little farther down the avenue, to an imposing – and fully working – wishing stone.

You have to stand with your back to the “Ironing Stone” and get a pebble over the tip for your wish to come true. Kylemore was a secondary school until a few years ago, and plenty of school girls nabbed their ideal debs partner this way.

We then stretch our legs a little. There is a shuttle bus to the walled garden but the walk through the woods brings you past one of those Connemara vistas that a theatre designer might have sneakily dropped into place.

The walled garden is impressive, with its formal bedding, vegetable garden and rushing stream. There is a restored head gardener’s house. My favourite nook here is the little workman’s bothy with its smoky fire and enamel mugs on the table waiting to be filled with a strong brew for gardeners who have long departed.

After a good exploration of gardens and woodland walks, it’s time for another pit stop at the garden tea house, which overlooks green fields and the Diamond Hill.

As a day out to share with friends old or new, Kylemore Abbey is a show stopper.

In partnership with Discoverireland.ie