8/20 -- Kylemore Estate and Abbey, Derrigimlach Bog

Today was all about walking. We started at a 19th century estate that became an abbey to view the walled gardens and the Estate/Abbey, separated by a mile of road. Although there was a shuttle bus, we walked. Then after a very quick lunch, we headed to a bog that was also the home of Marconi's early communications efforts as well as the place the first transatlantic plane crashed.

The estate was built by a couple after the wife fell in love with the area during their honeymoon. A mere 7 years after the estate was started, in 1874, she died while traveling in Egypt and was laid to rest at a mausoleum on the property. The estate was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1903, and then to the Benedictines in 1920. They established a school for girls there. The castle is impressive, viewed across a lake. We opted to walk to the walled garden first, along a charming road with unique, often musical, sculptures. There were lots of descriptive panels to guide us. Most of the old glass houses are gone, so the possibility of growing bananas or coconut palms again is out, but the garden is still manicured and beautiful.

The first view of the castle at Kylemore

A grotto on the walk to the walled garden

Memorial tile to the builder of Kylemore on the garden wall.

One of two remaining glass houses. Originally the 'Vinery',
it now houses things like the banana plant whose houses
have not been restored.

The middle area with the blue framework was a tropical house.

The master gardener's house.

The interior was available to view - this is the main parlor.

The dornered stone building was a bothy, or housing for up
to six workers. Tight by our standards, it would have been
considered quite nice by the workers of the time.

Bothy living room and kitchen. The stairs on the right lead
to a  large upper bedroom for four.

Downstairs bedroom for two.

The 'kitchen garden' was at least as large as the decorative
ones, and supplied the fruits and vegetables for the house
and later, for the Abbey.

The formal gardens from the bottom of the garden. The whitish
building at the top right is the glass house in the first garden
photo and the Master Gardener's house is at the top left.

There was tea shop and cafe next to the garden, decorated
with these fanciful sheep.

We walked back toward the Abbey, to be in time for a 11am presentation. Most of the Abbey is off limits, with quite a few of the original living spaces furnished and available to tour. The presentation was apparently delayed  because a French version was starting a few minutes before 11, so we elected to walk to the mausoleum and the 'Iron Stone', a large triangular stone.  However, it was the only sight on the estate that did not include an interpretive sign, so we walked right past it and started getting concerned about the time, and started back. THEN we saw it, opposite 3 sculpted fingers reaching up from the ground, which had distracted us on the way out.  In theory, if you can throw a pebble over the stone while standing with your back to it, you get a wish, so Jim and I are now eager to get our wishes delivered.

Jim in front of the castle in the mist.

Main entry of the castle

The original first floor plan. The estate had 33 bedrooms.

Constructed waterfall on the way to the church.

The estate's church, which we did not go into.

The three spooky fingers, which diverted our attention from
the 'Iron Stone' below, so that we missed it and went on
too far.

The Iron Stone, where we both got our wish....

We hustled back to collect our lunch, peek in the gift shop for the locally made chocolate AND get to the bus by noon. We only made it by eating our soup there and getting the sandwich and cake to go.

We had a quick stop at the hotel, then headed out to Derrigimlach Bog, which was home to a large Marconi complex in the early 1900s. Marconi was half Irish and thought the west coast of Ireland would be a fine location for communicating to North America, which he succeeded in doing.  All the buildings are gone now, but there were lots of signs and photos to help us visualize it. This was also the location of the end of the first transatlantic flight. There was a contest for who could do it first, and the eventual winners actually had horrible luck and ended up leaving Newfoundland  last. Lucky for them, the first four all ran into worse trouble and fell short. One crew that crashed into the Atlantic was rescued by a passing ship, but not before their wives were told they had perished. The only bad part for the winners was that their landing was a bit abrupt and their plane did not survive. There are 2 monuments to their efforts, one in the bog and one a mile and a half away overlooking their landing area. The hike around the bog and to all the sights was nearly four miles, and Jim and I topped 20,000 steps for the day.

The scenery here had sort of a bleak beauty.

Peat is still being dug all over Ireland despite the prevalence
of natural gas for heating. It is cheap (free if you do the work)
and the tradition of using it to start fires continues.

Lots of sheep were scattered across the complex. I don't
think I'd want to be the dog responsible for rounding them
up in this wet environment.

There were still a few water lilies blooming.

The nose cone marks the area where Alcock and Brown
crashed landed, not realizing they were over a lumpy bog
instead of a nice flat field.

The sheep seems to be posing on the ruined foundations
of one of the Marconi buildings.

This was (I think) the Marconi electric plant.

The ruins of the Social Club.  Not realistic to go into town,
so there were facilities on the grounds as well as housing.

More bleak bog beauty.

On our way back, our driver, Michael, had a surprise for us and Holly too. We drove to the top of a hill with another monument to the transatlantic flight that looked like an airplane tail instead of a nose cone like we saw in the bog. The actual plane, however, was open cockpit and looked much more like a Wright brothers contraption than a modern plane.

Memorial to Alcock and Brown's successful transatlantic
flight. The nose cone is 1.5 miles away to the left.

This is a spit of land between two bays with the Atlantic at
its end and sort of visiblehere.

When we got back, I went for a massage and Jim walked into town to pick up a few supplies and spied some interesting storefronts.

Above and below: Our neighbors, who are watering
our plants while we travel, apparently have Irish ancestors.

When we were done, we went to a talk and pictures about the history of Connemara from 6500 years ago til now. The earliest evidence of people dates that far back in middens (garbage dumps) where people threw shellfish shells and other leftovers. Then about 2000 years later, large stones started to be placed, but there is no clear agreement on what they were for.

He also told us why the potato famine was so devastating. People raised many other vegetables, but they were for sale, to pay the rent on their farms, and they kept potatoes for themselves. The variety they used was so nutritious that it supported tremendous population growth. Each person would consume seven potatoes a day. There were also a lot of good potatoes around, but merchants were storing them for the time when the price would go up substantially, allowing their neighbors to starve. There were unintended consequences in other ways too. Families would ship their strongest member off to the US in hopes that he could send support funds back, but all too often the folks in Ireland would perish, leaving the lucky one burdened with survivor guilt. This seminal event in Irish history gets virtually no attention in Irish history classes.  It was so horrific on so many levels that even 173 years later, they are really not ready to talk about it.