Ireland day 1551. Saturday 27 December 2025- From Connemara

Today’s summary	Got up relatively promptly, had breakfast of salmon, tomatoes and yogurt, and packed all our stuff into the car. Left the cottage promptly at 11. Spent most of the rest of the day visiting Kylemore Abbey, near Letterfrack. Fabulous place. Drove back to Malahide afterwards – an easy 4 hour drive and it went quickly. Beautiful scenery in Connemara on the way. Back in the flat by 7:30 then leftover turkey for dinner.
Today’s weather	Bright sunny and dry with a cold wind. Strong easterly wind. Appx 7c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Kylemore

Commentary

Today was the last day of our Christmas mini-break in Connemara and we had to be out of our cottage by 11am. So we got up at 9 am on the dot then started the day with salmon, tomatoes and Greek yogurt for breakfast. Very decadent. Then there was a frantic rush to tidy up the cottage, retrieve everything from the fridge (yes we had drastically over-catered) and pack it all into the car.

Eventually we did it, and successfully deported ourselves of Cuach cottage pretty much on time at 11.

Rather than driving straight back to Malahide, we decided to drive up to Letterfrack again, but this time to bypass the National Park centre and drive a little further on, to Kylemore Abbey. The Abbey website announced it was “closed 24-27 December” but a closer reading of the fine print (thanks Val) revealed that was actually only closed on 24, 25 and 26 December but it would be opened again today, on the 27th.

So we got parked, paid our €15.50 senior admission rate, and set about exploring. It was magnificent. Far exceeding my expectations. The Abbey, which was formerly a stately home built by London-based industrialist Mitchell Henry for his wife, is situated on the shores of Pollacapall Lough with views right to the top of Diamond Hill and the Connemara mountains. On a day like today, it was simply stunning.

The house became an Abbey in 1920, after it had been acquired by a group of Benedictine nuns who had fled from their monastery in Ypres, Belgium, in 1915. It’s been open to the public for at least 20 years and as well as the house (which is well preserved and well presented) there’s a church on the Lough side and a couple of km up the valley is a huge walled garden.

In the house’s heyday in the 1880s, exotic fresh fruit were grown in a massive collection of heated greenhouses in the garden. Nowadays only one remains but the rest of the garden is immaculately preserved and even more importantly there is a tea shop.

Essential refreshments were of course enjoyed then, after a last glance at the magnificent garden, house, Lough and mountains, we made our way back to the car and set out to return to Dublin.

The journey took around 4 hours but it was very easy and we shared the driving. The early part of the route, as far as Oughterard, was stunning – huge mountain wilderness landscapes more reminiscent of Lapland than of Ireland. Fabulous and worthy of a more lengthy exploration one day.

We made it back to Malahide for 7:30 and quickly unpacked the car. Then we settled down to dinner (reheated turkey, of course – but still delicious after three days) then picked up the remote control and fired up Netflix. Tonight it’s a programme about houses in Alderley Edge, UK. It promises to be lightweight voyeuristic viewing.

But we’re coming to the end of a truly brilliant four nights away in Connemara. We’ve loved every minute and we’re so glad we have been. Where next!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


A brief pause in Clifden first thing to buy some petrol. It’s a smart and charming little town	The view over Pollacapull Lough from the terrace of the house. Perfect! But cold

We were treated to an ad hoc accordion recital in the Fordham Hall – originally the house’s ballroom	Heading out along the lakeside

A touch of the tropics – Strelitzia in full bloom in the one remaining greenhouse up in the walled garden. It is hoped that “one day” the others will be rebuilt. too. But I wouldn’t hold your breath as there were twenty-one of them in total so it would be a multi-million project	Head Gardener’s cottage. A perfect, really solid, three bedroom bungalow occupying a prime position in the walled garden. I have decided that I want to live here (although the windowframes could do with a bit of attention first)

Panoramic view over the lough with the iconic abbey on the left. Its image (shown in the banner image at the top) is also reproduced on page 12 of the current Irish passport