May 5, 2024 Castlebar to Galway

There was blue sky showing in between the clouds this morning. There was very little wind. The morning temperature was 11°C, by this afternoon when it was sunny, the temperature reached 17°C.

The luggage was out before going to breakfast at 8 a.m. Everyone was on the bus by 9 a.m. for the two hour drive to Kylemore Abbey. We all moved three seats back from yesterday’s seats for those people on the right side and forward for those people on the left side. Each day we will switch seats from the previous day.

Just out of Castlebar, we drove through Westport where there is a statue of St. Patrick. In 2022, the main square was used in a Hallmark movie called Irish Wish. Westport lies on the shores of Clew Bay. Also on Clew Bay was the town of Murrisk where, since 1997, a sculpture named Coffin Ship, the National Famine Memorial, by John Behan was erected in a park, not far from where the ships sailing to Canada were loaded with starving immigrants during the famine. People were sick and many never arrived in the New World. As Guide Ireland (c. 2021) reveals, “each passenger had to bring his own food for the journey, not exceeding 3 kilos of food.” “A terrible rule, because most Irish people at the time were too poor to buy their own food!” Actress Grace Kelly’s father came from Westport. Looming in the distance was the tallest mountain in the area, Croagh (kroke) Patrick, which stands 2,500 feet above sea level. The legend is that St. Patrick prayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights. At the end he spoke to God asking that on Judgement Day St. Patrick be the judge of the Irish people.

Peter told us about a woman clan chieftain and pirate, Grace O’Malley (Irish name Gráinne Ni Mháille). The O’Malleys were fishermen who fished as far away as Newfoundland and were pirates too. She was known as Grace of the short hair. The legend goes that at age eight she asked her father, the chieftain, if she could go with fishing fleet. He said no, she asked why? He said because she was not a boy. She found shears and cut off her hair, returned to her father and said “Now I am a boy.” That was the start of her seafaring days. She married three times to powerful men. In old Irish law, a woman could divorce her husband, by having a witness watch her walk around her house three times and then say to her husband “You are dismissed.” When her father died, Grace was voted the next clan leader for decades. When Queen Elizabeth I decided that Ireland had to follow English law, Grace sailed her ship from Clew Bay and up the Thames River to Greenwich, where Queen Elizabeth I lived and demanded an audience. The audience lasted about ten hours, where the middle aged women leaders talked and drank wine. In the end, Elizabeth granted Grace’s demand to rule her land under Irish law but, only until her death and not be bothered by English authorities. She could still pirate English ships as well as Spanish ships.

Today’s route was on the scenic Wild Atlantic Way through the Dhulough Valley. Dhulough means Black Lake. Sometimes the paved road narrowed to one lane.

There was a brief photo stop at Dhulough to view the beautiful mountain lake and further to see Aasleagh Falls. In 1984 the movie The Field starring Richard Harris, Tom Berenger and Sean Bean was filmed nearby and used the falls in a scene. Along Killary Harbour is Ireland's only fjord, is located Killary Fjord Shellfish mussel farm. Mussels only grow in pristine water.

The drive took just over two hours including the photo stops at Murrisk, Dhulough and Aasleagh Falls. Peter instructed the group to return to the coach by 2 p.m. giving everyone nearly three hours to explore Kylemore Abbey grounds.

Mitchell Henry bought 1,000 acres bordering Pollacappul Lough (lake) as an ideal place to build his own castle. It was completed in 1871. We toured the main floor of the castle, there was even a Victorian powder room with beautiful blue scene pained on the toilet porcelain, but we didn’t take a picture. The castle was sold in 1903 to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester and changes were made to the main floor. Then after World War 1, the Benedictine Nuns purchased the estate. This branch was established in Ypres, Belgium in 1665. Due to England’s suppression of Catholics, the Irish nobility sent their daughters as students and postulants.

In 1598, Lady Mary Percy, daughter of the Earl of Northumberland, founded a Benedictine convent for women in Brussels. Her foundation attracted some Irishwomen, an abbey was established in the city of Ypres, in the Flanders region of Belgium and in 1686 the monastery was officially dedicated as an Irish Benedictine Abbey. They were known as The Irish Dames of Ypres. When Catholic King James II ascended the throne of England and Ireland, the nuns saw an opportunity to establish their foundation in Ireland, but living in Ireland ended when the king was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. They returned to Ypres until the fall of 1914, when their convent was in the middle of the World War 1 in the first of three battles near Ypres. They fled to Dublin. After the war they found that the Kylemore property was for sale and bought it. There was a girls school there until 2010. Tours are given daily at Kylemore Abbey, of part of the house and grounds.

First we walked to the Kylemore Castle, other group members went to the restaurant or the walled garden. There were posters with information about the Henry family and the Benedictine nuns. Then we took the shuttle for the 1.8 kilometre drive to the 8.5 acre walled gardens. There was a Tea House which was not busy, so we stopped for coffee and scones, before a lovely walk through the gardens. A return in the summer would show lots of colour. Mitchell Henry planted more 1,000 trees on the property. By the Tea House was the Pony Paddock where a Connemara Pony and her foal were grazing. We walked back down to the main entrance. There was a waterfall in the Sruffaunduff stream which is fed by one of the five lakes up in the mountains called Dúchruach meaning Black Stack. We looked through the large gift shop before returning to the bus. We were on the road just after 2 p.m.

The drive to Galway was a little over an hour. We arrived close to 3:30 p.m. and checked in. The rest of the day was on our own. We decided to explore the city centre and its pedestrian streets which were bustling with people enjoying the sunshine on a long weekend Sunday. For dinner we found a Moroccan restaurant called High Cafe which was on the second floor up a steep staircase. The restaurant was small maybe holding 30 people at maximum capacity. We had delicious pasta meals.

The wander through the area was just three kilometres round trip.

Total steps today were 13,772