Kylemore Abbey

Well, she was originally from County Down, but Margaret Vaughan's tragic tale will be forever linked with Galway as the inspiration behind Kylemore Abbey’s neo-Gothic Church.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before there was tragedy, there was romance.

It's 1852. Successful financier, Mitchell Henry and his new bride, Margaret Vaughan, are on honeymoon in Connemara. The couple is enjoying an al fresco lunch in the townland of Kylemore. As they sit, Margaret comments how beautiful the area is, and how wonderful it would be to live there. Thirteen years later a stunning castle retreat, overlooking a glassy Connemara lake, was constructed.

Luxury was too small a word to describe Kylemore Abbey. In his book Irish Country Houses, Terence Reeves-Smyth talks of the castle as being “on a Citizen Kane scale, boasting many splendid reception rooms including a ballroom with a sprung floor, a magnificent staircase, a library, a study and 33 bedrooms...” For almost 10 years, Mitchell, Margaret and their nine children lived here, in what sounds like, from all accounts, a state of bliss.

Few visitors know the story of Kylemore and the reason it was built, but it’s dramatic stuff. For Mitchell, Kylemore Abbey – a labour of love – turned overnight into a reminder of the woman he had lost. His story, and Kylemore’s, is a tale of love to rival any blockbuster Hollywood romance.

Yet, as any good writer will know, every story must have its end. Mitchell and Margaret’s came when he passed away in 1910, joining his wife in the small mausoleum that is tucked beside the church at Kylemore.

And there they stay. Happily ever after.