Kylemore writes new chapter for Galway’s tourism jewel

One-hundred years after they fled war-torn Belgium to settle in Ireland, the Benedictine Order of nuns at Kylemore Abbey will this year open the doors on a new monastery – beginning anew by achieving what their predecessors had worked towards for the past century.

Since the school at Kylemore closed ten years ago, the tourist numbers visiting the Abbey and its surrounds have grown steadily.

The newly renovated Abbey has reinvigorated what is a jewel in the crown of Connemara’s tourism offering – but the story of Kylemore has been as much about survival as it has been about creating a stopping point along the Connemara tourist route, as Sr Máire Hickey OSB, Mother Abbess at Kylemore explains.

From the 1960s onwards, Ireland was becoming more prosperous and following membership of the EU in 1973, tourism began to grow. American tourists began to trace their fore-fathers and were looking for places to stop when they visited Connemara, she says.

“The nuns knew they had to keep the place going and to earn a living, so they opened a little café and a little shop. They started building a business to meet the needs of visitors and that developed into what you see here today,” says Sr Máire.

Much has changed over the 100 years the nuns have been resident in Kylemore.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, in shops today.

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