Wednesday 5th June 2024.
We are spending tonight at the quay in Belmullet with views of fishing boats. It’s quite a small town on the NW of Ireland.
When we set off this morning we headed for the nearby town of Cliffden, it looked a very nice place as we drove around several times trying to park, sadly we couldn’t find a space suitable for Homer so we had to drive on. The scenery is changing all the time, today less lakes, flatter, lots of peat bogs and always with the mountains in the distance.
Driving along we came across Kylemore Abbey and Victorian walled gardens, we drove down the drive and we’re waved into the coach parking area. Five coaches were disgorging their eager passengers who swarmed up the drive to purchase tickets and take advantage of guided tours. As it would cost 34 euros admission fee, dogs not allowed inside anywhere and even if we left Layla in the van we would be at the back of “ the league of nations that had descended” so we satisfied ourselves with just taking some photos from a distance.
Kylemore Abbey is a Benedictine monastery set in 1,000 acres of mountainside, it was founded in 1920 in the grounds of Kylemore Castle. It was founded for Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium in WW1, it continues today providing education and retreat activities.
Kylemore Castle was built in 1867 with 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom, billiard room, library, study,smoking room and gun room, plus accommodation for the domestic staff, and took 4 years to build.
Our next port of call was Westport where after a tour of carparks we found one that accepts motorhomes staying over night, however there was only one dedicated space, I tried to get in car spaces with no luck until someone drove off from a corner space and we squeezed in.
It took a further 90 minutes drive to tonight’s stop, a total of 109 miles today that’s the furthest we have driven in one day since we arrived, we have planned next week to be a series of short hops.
taraabit 