Kylemore Abbey Tours
Kylemore Abbey Tours › HistoryUpdated 2026-09-17

The History of Kylemore Abbey

Hours, prices and access verified by the Kylemore Abbey Tours team — last checked 2026-09-17.

A castle built as a love token, a Duke who could not afford it, and a community of nuns who fled Ypres. Before you book a Kylemore Abbey tour, here is the story that the rooms tell.

A honeymoon in the 1850s and a lodge in the valley

Mitchell Henry was born in Manchester to a family of Irish descent. He trained as a surgeon, and later sat for Galway as a Liberal MP for fourteen years. He was one of the founders of the Home Rule movement.

He and Margaret Vaughan Henry spent their honeymoon in Connemara in the 1850s. They came back to buy Kylemore Lodge, a fishing lodge on the shore of the lough, and the land around it.

The valley already had a name that told its story. Kylemore comes from the Irish Coill Mhór, the big wood. A sporting magazine in 1842 described the mountain above the lake as “still covered with the remains of an ancient forest”. The Henrys set out to bring it back, and planted some 300,000 trees, native and exotic.

Kylemore Castle, 1867–1874

Margaret laid the foundation stone on 4 September 1867. The house was designed by James Franklin Fuller, and built of granite into the side of Duchruach mountain. The builders used dynamite to cut its platform out of the slope.

Foundation stoneLaid by Margaret Henry on 4 September 1867
ArchitectJames Franklin Fuller, with the engineer Ussher Roberts
CostA little over £18,000
Rooms33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom and a billiard room
Also insideA library, study, school room, smoking room and gun room
Built into the hillDynamite cut the site into the mountainside

It was the family home of the Henrys and their nine children. The ground-floor rooms you walk through today were theirs: the library and study, the drawing room, the morning room and the dining room. The Henrys also laid out the Victorian Walled Garden, with 21 heated glasshouses.

Margaret's death, and a cathedral in miniature

In 1874 the family went on holiday to Egypt. On the Nile, Margaret fell ill with dysentery and died sixteen days later. She was 45. Mitchell had her body embalmed in Cairo and brought home to Kylemore.

“It is not our mistress we have lost, but our mother.” One of the Kylemore tenants, on Margaret Henry's death, as the abbey records it.

Local lore says her body lay in a glass coffin in the staircase hall for a time. Mitchell then built the Neo-Gothic Church in her memory, from 1877 to 1881, again to Fuller's design. Its columns are marble from the four provinces: green from Connemara, black from Kilkenny, red from Cork and white from Tyrone. Where a Gothic church would have gargoyles, this one has flowers, birds and angels.

Margaret was laid to rest in the small brick Mausoleum on the avenue. When Mitchell died in London in 1910, he was interred beside her. You can visit both on the walk along the lough.

Hear the story told in the front hall

The abbey's guides give free history talks every day. Every tour card shows how long you get at the estate, and whether the ticket is in your fare.

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The Duke and Duchess of Manchester, 1903–1914

In the early 1900s the Henrys sold Kylemore to the 9th Duke of Manchester, William Angus Drogo Montagu, and his American wife, Helena Zimmerman. The Duke's own history page gives 1903 for the sale.

The couple left in 1914. The rooms you see today keep their story in the Ante Room and the Gallery Saloon Hall.

The legend

The Duke gambled Kylemore away at cards. You will hear it told in Connemara, and it is the version most people remember.

The record

Money ran short after Helena's father, Eugene Zimmerman, died. The abbey's own history treats that as the likelier cause.

From Ypres to Connemara: the Benedictine nuns

The nuns who bought Kylemore had been on the move for three centuries. Their community was founded in Brussels in 1598. Their abbey at Ypres, in Flanders, dates from 1665, and in 1682 it was made over to the Irish nation.

In 1688 the nuns moved to Dublin at the request of King James II, then went back to Ypres after the Battle of the Boyne. Early in the First World War their abbey was destroyed. They reached Kylemore in December 1920 and turned the castle into an abbey. It is the oldest of the Irish Benedictine abbeys.

The same year, they re-dedicated the Henrys' church as a Catholic church. They brought the estate back into use as a farm and a kitchen garden, and a community still lives in the upper floors today. That is why the visit is to the ground floor only.

Kylemore Abbey School, 1923–2010

The nuns opened a girls' boarding and day school in 1923, with 30 pupils. For almost ninety years it drew girls from Ireland and abroad. The Kylemore Today room tells their story.

A guesthouse run by the community closed after a fire in 1959. The school itself lasted until June 2010, when the last pupils sat their exams. Today the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, has a Global Gateway on the estate.

Kylemore today, and the rooms that tell the story

The estate is run by the Kylemore Trust, a registered charity led by the Benedictine nuns. In 2019 the abbey opened the ‘From Generation to Generation’ Visitor Experience on the ground floor.

You enter under a granite arch and follow the story in order. The Welcome Room was the kitchen scullery. The Flight From Ypres room follows the nuns' journey, and Mitchell Henry's Library and Study brings back the founder. The Drawing Room holds the only portrait of Margaret. The daily history talks in the front hall are the spoken version of all this.

Kylemore Abbey timeline, 1598–2019

YearWhat happened
1598The Benedictine community that now lives at Kylemore is founded in Brussels
1665Its abbey at Ypres, in Flanders, is founded; in 1682 it is made over to the Irish nation
1850sMitchell and Margaret Henry honeymoon in Connemara
4 Sep 1867Margaret lays the foundation stone of Kylemore Castle
1874Margaret dies after falling ill in Egypt, aged 45
1877–1881The Neo-Gothic Church is built in her memory
1903The 9th Duke of Manchester and his wife Helena take the estate
1910Mitchell Henry dies in London and is laid beside Margaret in the Mausoleum
1914The Duke and Duchess leave; the Ypres abbey is destroyed in the war
Dec 1920The Benedictine nuns arrive; the church is re-dedicated as Catholic
1923Kylemore Abbey School opens with 30 pupils
1959A fire closes the guesthouse
1995The church restoration is completed and opened by President Mary Robinson
13 Oct 2000The restored Victorian Walled Garden reopens
June 2010The last pupils sit their exams, and the school closes
2019The ‘From Generation to Generation’ Visitor Experience opens

History questions

Who built Kylemore Abbey?
Mitchell Henry, a Manchester-born surgeon of Irish descent who became a Liberal MP for Galway. He built it as Kylemore Castle for his wife, Margaret, to a design by James Franklin Fuller.
When was Kylemore Abbey built?
Margaret Henry laid the foundation stone on 4 September 1867. It became an abbey when the Benedictine nuns arrived in December 1920.
Why is Kylemore called an abbey?
Because it is one. A community of Benedictine nuns has lived here since 1920, and they still live in the upper floors today.
Did the Duke of Manchester lose Kylemore gambling?
That is the local legend. The abbey's own history points to money instead: the Duke's funds ran short after his father-in-law, Eugene Zimmerman, died.
Where are Mitchell and Margaret Henry buried?
In the small brick Mausoleum on the avenue, just past the church. No member of the family was ever placed in the church vaults.
What does Kylemore mean?
It comes from the Irish Coill Mhór, the big wood. The Henrys planted some 300,000 trees to bring the old woodland back.

Sources for this history

Every date here comes from the abbey's own history pages, read in 2026. Where two of its pages disagree, we give the date both agree on.

Tours with time for the rooms and a history talk

Next: see what each room holds on things to see at Kylemore Abbey, walk the restored walled garden, or compare every day out on Kylemore Abbey Tours.