Kylemore & Connemara National Park

Rest days - Tuesday 26th, Wednesday 27th & Thursday 28th, June 2018: Letterfrack 0 km / Total 1799 km, 29°C, sunny

Time has come to take some holidays (I don't consider I'm on holidays, it's more a kind of gap year), as Mum is visiting me.

It's good to be with someone who knows me. Of course, I met a lot of people on the road, in pubs and hostels, but they didn't know me before my trip. Mum agreed I got slimmer. We think I've lost something like 10 kg (fortunately I left France with some extra kilos). But according to her, I shouldn't lose more. Well, I don't know what I could lose more, but I'll try (it depends if I have to cross another deserted area like North Mayo or not).

As we stayed in Letterfrack, we went to visit Kylemore Abbey which is located 4 km away. In fact, in the beginning, it was a Neogothic castle built by Mitchell Henry for his wife Margaret, as they fell in love with the place during their honeymoon. It was a very modern place and even King Edward VII stayed. Unfortunately, Margaret died during a holiday trip in Egypt. Her husband then built a beautiful mini cathedral for her. They both remain in a mausoleum in the park. The castle was bought by Benedictine sisters from Ypres Abbey (a catholic Irish Abbey in Belgium) in 1920, and they created a very famous international school for girls, which closed in 2010.

The Castle and the mini Cathedral are really worth the visit, and the park, with tall trees and the lake surrounded by mountains, is really beautiful. We also visited the Victoria walled garden, as my mother is quite good at botanic and can tell me the name of most of the species.

Apart from the Abbey, of course, we visited the Connemara National Park. We climbed Diamond Hill (445m) from where you can have a great view above Kylemore Abbey and the Twelve Pins. But it was an exhausting walk, as Ireland is currently facing a heatwave with 29°C. I chose Ireland for my walking trip because, as they say in one of Ireland Tourism advertisement, it's "never too hot and never too cold". Well ... I had snow and 0°C in March, and now it's nearly 30°C and some counties are under water restrictions! This extreme weather is definitely proof of climate change!