Explore Kylemore

Kylemore Lough is a lake in Connemara. The lake is about 2 km long and 1 km wide, and it is about 20 km northeast of Clifden.

Some fish species living in the lake include salmon and brown trout. The lake is part of The Twelve Bens/Garraun Complex Special Area of Conservation.

But it’s for the beautiful Kylemore Abbey that this lake is mostly known for: A Benedictine monastery founded in 1920 by nuns who escaped from Belgium in World War I.

The building was originally a castle built in 1867 as a romantic gift but then was purchased by the nuns who turned it into a monastery and a boarding school for girls, open until 2010.

This splendid building reflecting on the waters of the lake and surrounded by Victorian walled gardens with beautiful glasshouses offers a postcard-perfect scenery to its visitors.