The present Benedictine nuns of Kylemore Abbey have a long history, beginning at Brussels in 1598. This was the time following the suppression of religious houses in the British Isles when British Catholics left England and opened religious houses abroad.

A number of monasteries originated from one Benedictine house in Brussels, founded by Lady Marry Percy in 1598. Houses funded from Lady Mary’s house in Brussels were at Cambray in France (now Stanbrook in England) and at Ghent (now Oulton Abbey) in Staffordshire, Ghent in turn founded several Benedictine Houses, now of which was at Ypres. Kylemore Abbey is the oldest of the Irish Benedictine Abbeys.

The community of nuns, who have resided here since 19200, have a long history stretching back almost three hundred and forty years.
Founded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1665, the house was formally made over to the Irish nation in 1682.

The purpose o the abbey at Ypres was to provide an education and religious community for Irish women during times of persecution here in Ireland.

Down through the centuries, Ypres Abbey attracted the daughters of the Irish nobility, both as students and postulants, and enjoyed the patronage of many influential Irish families living in exile.

At the request of King James II the nuns moved to Dublin in 1688. However, they returned to Ypres following James’s defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The community finally left Ypres after the Community the Abbey was destroyed in the early days of World War One.

The community first took refuge in England, and later in Co Wexford before eventually settling in Kylemore in December 1920. At Kylemore, the nuns reopened their international boarding school and established a day school for local girls. They also ran a farm and guesthouse; the guesthouse was closed after a devastating fire in 1959.
A section of the Abbey (the enclosure) is retained strictly for the nun’s use and is not open to the public; here the nuns devote themselves to their monastic life of prayer and hard work.

There are four rooms on display in the abbey and the remainder is occupied by the International Girl’s Boarding School.

Click here to learn more about our former Abbesses.