Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey is a Victorian Gothic castle built between 1867 and 1871 by Mitchell Henry, a wealthy Manchester merchant and MP, as a gift for his wife Margaret. The scale of the project was extraordinary: 33 bedrooms, a Gothic chapel on the grounds, a walled Victorian garden of 2.5 hectares, and the lake in front reshaped to provide a more picturesque reflection. Margaret died in Egypt in 1875, and Mitchell Henry eventually sold the estate. In 1920 the Benedictine nuns of Ypres, displaced by the First World War, took it over. A boarding school they ran here closed in 2010, but the community remains.

The setting is the draw — the castle sits at the base of a hillside in Connemara, reflected in Pollacapall Lough, with the Twelve Bens mountains behind. It is one of the most photographed buildings in Ireland, largely because the combination of Gothic architecture, mountain and water is genuinely unusual. The interior — accessible on a self-guided audio tour — covers the Victorian history and the convent period. The Gothic chapel in the grounds is small but meticulously restored.

The walled Victorian garden, a 15-minute walk through the woods from the main building, is the underrated part of the visit. Restored in the 1990s after decades of neglect, it covers 2.5 hectares and includes kitchen gardens, a fernery, flower gardens and a glasshouse. Allow extra time for it. The on-site restaurant (open to visitors) is good quality for a tourist attraction.