Kylemore Abbey's Victorian Walled Garden

Six acres of flowers and vegetables that grew here before 1901, rescued from brambles by a nun with a plan. Planning a Kylemore Abbey tour? The garden is in your ticket, and so is the bus that takes you there.

Six acres split by a mountain stream

The garden covers about six acres, and a mountain stream runs through the middle. The two halves do different jobs, so decide which you want before your time runs short.

Twelve self-guiding panels take you round, starting at the top of the formal flower garden. The herbaceous border is one of the longest in Ireland.

The formal flower garden, as the Henrys saw it

You enter the formal garden first. Its geometric beds and strong colours follow photographs taken by Alexander Henry in the 1870s. The plants may look like the ones in your own garden, but every one is a Victorian variety.

The walls do real work. They are Scottish red brick and Irish granite, and the brick soaks up the day's sun and gives it back in the evening. Apples and pears grow flat against them, and the walls keep out wind, frost and the sheep.

The narrow beds planted in three colours down the sides are ribbon beds, a Victorian fashion. The bedding changes twice a year, once for spring and once for summer, so the colours you see depend on your month.

The kitchen garden and its Victorian vegetables

The western half grows vegetables you may never have seen: cardoon, salsify and scorzonera, beside old varieties of potato and cabbage. A herb garden holds culinary and medicinal plants.

For most of a century this garden fed the nuns and the school. Today it is mainly a show garden. Some produce still goes to the estate's kitchens, or is sold for charity. The gardeners use seaweed, farmyard and green manure, and they deter pests with coffee grounds and companion planting.

21 glasshouses and 40 gardeners: the garden in the Henrys' day

Mitchell Henry built the garden with the castle, in the late 1800s. It had 21 heated glasshouses and a staff of 40 gardeners. It was one of the last walled gardens built in Victorian Ireland, and it was compared with Kew.

A gardener's job here changed lives. The hours ran from first light to last, but the pay and conditions were better than on other estates, at a time of hard poverty across Ireland. The Vinery grew bananas and grapes under glass in the 1890s.

Brambles to Europa Nostra: the restoration, 1995–2000

After the Henrys left, the garden slowly ran down. The nuns brought it back as a working garden in 1920, but by the 1990s most of it lay under shrubs, brambles and trees.

1. 1870sAlexander Henry photographs the garden. His pictures later guide the replanting.
2. 1920The nuns arrive and run it as a working kitchen garden, under Sr Benedict.
3. 1990sShrubs and brambles cover most of it, and the glasshouses are gone.
4. 1995Sr Magdalena FitzGibbon gathers an advisory team, and Ann Golden becomes head gardener.
5. 13 October 2000The garden reopens. Its last two original gardeners plant a ceremonial tree.
6. 2001The restoration wins a Europa Nostra award.
7. 2025The abbey marks 25 years since the garden reopened.

Sr Magdalena FitzGibbon led the work, with help from the Great Gardens of Ireland fund. The early digging was closer to archaeology than gardening, as the team uncovered paths and beds. At the reopening, Sr Benedict put the key in the gate, and the formal speeches took place in the new Garden Tea House.

The Head Gardener's House and the bothy

The Head Gardener's House stands above the garden, where its first tenant could watch both the beds and his workers. It was the one building that stayed whole. The German travel writer A. E. Johann lived there in the 1950s while he wrote a guide to Ireland.

A little way down the path is the Workman's Bothy, where several gardeners lived. You can go into the bothy and the toolshed, where curiosity boxes and old photographs show how the gardeners lived.

Getting there and back: the shuttle bus

The garden sits apart from the abbey, and a free shuttle bus runs between them. It is in your ticket, and it is wheelchair accessible. Most garden paths are accessible too, though some areas have steep slopes or steps.

Dogs are welcome on a lead outdoors, but they cannot ride the shuttle bus. The Garden Tea House, open 11:00 to 16:00, serves food inside the garden, and the Wild Play area for small children is beside it.

On a two-hour stop, take the shuttle first. You then see the abbey and the church on your way back to the car park, and finish near the café when your time is up.

When the walled garden looks its best

Rain, wind and daylight by month are on Kylemore Abbey weather.

Walled garden questions

Where these facts come from

The garden's history, layout and planting come from the abbey's own garden page, read in 2026. Hours and access come from its ticket and accessibility pages.

• Kylemore Abbey: Victorian Walled Garden
• Kylemore Abbey: Tickets and information
• Kylemore Abbey: Opening times
• Kylemore Abbey: Accessibility

Tours with the abbey and garden ticket in the fare

Small Group Kylemore Abbey, Sheepdog Demo & Connemara Tour

A Lally Tours day capped at 25, with the abbey ticket and a sheepdog demonstration both in the fare.

From $134 per person

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From Galway: Connemara & Kylemore Abbey Full-Day Guided Tour

Lally Tours' Leenane day with the estate ticket in the fare: two hours at the abbey and garden, then Spiddal on the way home.

From $74 per person

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