Living It Up

Shorter biking day today, only 26Km covered.  There were two routes that we could go today, both of approximately the same length.  One followed the shores of the Killary Fjord closely, and the other wandered more inland but included the Kylemore Abbey, one of the top 10 destinations in Ireland, by some measures.  We chose the interior route.

We started out seeing a lot of bicycles on the road.  Turns out there was an adventure race today, with the racers running, kayaking, biking, and climbing up and down Croagh Patrick mountain on foot, then back on the bike to finish in Westport.  We were riding the opposite direction of the cyclists.  We thought maybe we would blend in, but we were the tourists piloting heavily-laden electric bikes, and the racers were all in their colorful spandex and flying by on their lightweight street bikes.  Not even close.  The race at least slowed the traffic somewhat.  Instead of just four tourists on the main road, there were dozens of bikers.  While the road was still narrow and curvy, we didn’t have any close calls.

The main stop for today was Kylemore Abbey, a Benedictine monastery on the site of a castle. Built in the 1860’s by a wealthy doctor from London, it was eventually sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1903, who lived there for several years until he was forced to sell it because of gambling debts.  In 1920 it was purchased by a group of Irish Benedictine Nuns and they have owned it ever since.  Some of the castle is open for tours and the grounds including an 8-acre garden are also accessible.

We spend quite a bit of time here.  Of the many rooms (including 33 bedrooms), only about a dozen are open with displays and signs describing the history of this place.

The displays mention many names of people who lived there or visited there, important people that I have never heard of, but I did recognize one name: Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian engineer who is credited with the invention of the radio.

The castle is in a beautiful setting, perched on a lake at the foot of a rather steep mountain.  Under the original owner, the estate spanned over 13,000 acres including bogs, farmland, gardens, and woodlands, but is about 1,000 acres today.

The walled garden covers 8 acres.  In its heyday it included 21 heated glass houses for various plant types.  As the estate changed hands, the gardens fell into disrepair and all the glass houses eventually collapsed.  A recent restoration effort restored much of the gardens and one of the glass houses, and the foundations of the remaining glass houses, including the pipes used to heat them, are still visible.

Our destination for today was Renvyle House Hotel, a resort hotel near the end of the road at the point where the Killary Fjord meets the Atlantic Ocean.  Beautiful place in a beautiful setting.  One of the things we were looking forward to was their outdoor hot tub, situated near the water’s edge, with a commanding view of the Atlantic and the islands at the end of the Fjord.  What a treat!

The hotel even provides a robe and a set of monogrammed slippers to get you to the hot tub or the pool.  Really getting pampered here.

We found out that the dining room has some sort of cover charge of €65, so we had dinner in the bar.  This hotel, being at the end of a long road, is the only game in town for food, so they can do what they want.  Dinner was the typical pub food, which can be hit or miss.  The curry was good, the burger was good, the fries were good, the Irish beef sandwich was rather tough.  Probably grass-fed beef.

The rain predicted for today never materialized, for which we are grateful. Tomorrow is looking pretty hopeful also.