Connemara

The second day of our Ireland trip we drove around Connemara and it was my favorite of the entire trip!  Even a little (or buckets of torrential) rain couldn't ruin the beauty of the countryside.  Our first stop was completely unplanned, but I saw a sign on the side of the road for the "Quiet Man Bridge." You know the movie with John Wayne?  It was filmed in Ireland and this was the bridge featured prominently!  I flipped a U-turn in the middle of the two-lane road to stop and take a look.

We made another scenic stop to take photos of sheep, but the rain was too much and none of my pics really capture how beautiful it was!  Also, there were some large trucks passing us where we parked on the shoulder, so didn't stay too long there.  At a rest-stop kind of area we took a longer stop for lunch.  This monument was there...

Oh the Irish are funny people!  We had lunch at Joyce's and it was delicious. 

After lunch we powered on to Kylemore Abbey.  It was still raining pretty hard upon our arrival but we were determined to visit anyway.  Emily and Tom braving the weather...

Kylemore is amazingly beautiful - both the castle and the setting!  It was the country home for the Henry's, a wealthy British family.  Mitchell Henry built the castle and reclaimed bog land that became the estate.  Henry sold the property to the Duke of Manchester around the turn of the century.  They made some renovations but were poor managers of the finances of the estate and it was again sold less than 20 years later.  The new owners were Benedictine nuns, who used the castle as an Abbey and a school.  The Kylemore School was in operation as late as 2010 and is still a working Abbey today.   

Unfortunately because it is a working Abbey, we saw very little of the inside of the house.  Only about 6 rooms were open for visitors.  We were inside for about 20 minutes but came back out to blue skies and sunshine!

After Kylemore, we drove on to visit the village of Clifden, where we did a little shopping and had an afternoon pint.  Finally we drove back the two hours into Galway. 

I wish my pictures could really convey how spectacular the Connemara landscape was.  Google it and I'm sure you will see some amazing things!