Kylemore Abbey! This is the main castle; beyond the picture to the right is the gothic church, and to its left are the gardens and a Benedictine convent. See the beautiful fog rolling in over the hillside? The valley was magnificent! I also saw many swans in the lake here.
We went to see a live performance called “Trad on the Prom” in which traditional Irish music and dance were performed by the most talented artists! I could’ve sat there for hours. I wish I could move to Galway just to watch them perform over and over again. Everywhere in Ireland there is such a large live music culture. Every pub, even in the tiniest towns, advertises live music almost every night—when you walk in, the building is crammed wall-to-wall with locals of all ages. Teenagers and old couples alike crowd into the pubs to sway and dance to fiddles and elbow-pipes. The energy was both electric and cozy at once.
My biggest culture shock of the whole trip has to be how embedded folklore is into Irish culture. Everywhere I went, there seemed to be a new ghost story, a famed fairy tree, a witch’s hut, or a giant’s grave. Pagan beliefs and Christian ones blurred as tales included visits from the devil himself. These two ideologies seem naturally incompatible, but they exist simultaneously. As one local told me: “We Irish folk are an educated people. We don’t believe in fairies—but we are scared of them.” As contradictory as it seems, secular, modern intellect coexists in Ireland with the spiritual and supernatural.
We visited Kylemore Abbey, a castle built in 1868 but appearing to be straight out of a fairy tale. The fabulous estate was like a love letter from Mitchell Henry to his wife Margaret, who died tragically only a few years after the castle’s completion. The castle had been built at her request after she had fallen in love with the locals at Connemara and the beautiful valley. After her death, Henry built a Gothic church near the house. I’m going to sound dramatic, but you can feel how much he was grieving in the architecture of the church. It’s quite dark, and the walls are unadorned except for a small statue of the crucified Christ above the altar.
I haven’t talked much about sheep, but I would be remiss to never point them out. It’s estimated that there are about 3.4 million sheep in Ireland. The island is not that big. I saw SO MANY sheep. At first, I was thrilled to spot a sheep! They’re so cute—they look just like they do in cartoons, with skinny black legs and a cartoonishly fluffy white body. By the end of the trip, suffice it to say, I was not turning my head to look at sheep. They’re not all too bright and they bolt away from you as soon as you get within a stone’s throw. I did get to see a border collie herd sheep! It was amazing—the dogs are so smart, the shepherd commands their movements by adjusting how he whistles to them.
This is what’s known as a Giant’s grave! Archaeologists speculate that this rock structure was once the entrance to a grave site (not for giants, unfortunately); the surrounding area would have been a massive dirt mound.
Me and a little lamb! We went to a petting zoo with lambs you can hold. Every other sheep I encountered fled from me.