Connect With The Community
Webcam: Join the Benedictine community for Daily Mass at Kylemore Abbey via the monastic church webcam
Retreats: A range of retreats are offered on site throughout the year
Newsletter: subscribe here to receive quarterly updates
Vocations: If you are interested in exploring a religious vocation, please contact Sr Jeanne at vocations@kylemoreabbey.ie
Help Us Build Our Monastery, Guesthouse & Spiritual Education Centre:
Donate: Help us by making a gift
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Leave a Legacy: Remember Kylemore in your will
Kylemore Abbey is a Benedictine Monastery and iconic visitor attraction in Connemara, owned and managed by Kylemore Trust.
Led by the Benedictine nuns, Kylemore Trust is a non-profit, charitable organisation* whose mission is to support the Benedictine monastic way of life and preserve the heritage and natural beauty of Kylemore Abbey and Estate. In line with these objectives, Kylemore Trust has two main funding priorities:
A new Benedictine Monastery, Guest House and Spiritual Education Centre for Kylemore Abbey
How to help
Please help Kylemore Trust to continue its work
For more information about how you can help, please contact Liz McConnell, Head of Development at development@kylemoreabbey.ie
A new Benedictine Monastery for Kylemore Abbey
The Benedictine nuns of Kylemore have embarked on the most important project in their history: – a new Monastery purpose-built for a growing monastic community at Kylemore – a Guest House and Spiritual Education Centre for visitors to share the sacred space of their lives through short courses and retreats.
Monastery construction started in September 2019 and was due for completion in December 2020 to mark the centenary of the Benedictine nuns at Kylemore. Covid-19 has delayed the project, but Kylemore Trust remains committed to delivery of this historic project: first monastery in Ireland built for a community of Benedictine women in over 400 years.
What is a Monastery?
A monastery is the home of a community of women or men committed to living a life of witness to the presence and action of God in the world. It is a place apart, a place of contemplation and prayer, of work and community living, and of hospitality.
And why does Kylemore need one now?
For years Kylemore’s Benedictine community has lived and worshiped in multiple locations across the estate. Today Kylemore’s faith community is growing and needs a place to develop and grow in monastic life together. The new Monastery places the Benedictine ethos at the heart of the estate, enabling visitors to experience a living tradition of faith and spirituality and invites guests into the nuns’ lives of prayer and work, ora et labora.
Kylemore’s New Monastery
This historic new monastery will be a haven for visitors and a home for the faith community of Kylemore. The design is sensitively integrated into Kylemore’s unique environment and underpinned by important Benedictine tenets of stewardship of creation and hospitality. It comprises:
- Places for contemplative solitude and prayer for nuns and visitors
- Guest house and Spiritual Education Centre
- Novitiate and residential space for the nuns
- Centred on the Monastic Chapel
- Chapter room – a formal meeting room for the Benedictine community
- Library and Archive space
- Kitchen and Dining areas
- Visitors’ Area, welcoming guests and those interested in the spiritual life of Kylemore.
Conservation and enhancement of Kylemore Abbey & Estate
Since 1920 the Benedictine community of Kylemore Abbey have been committed stewards and conservators of the built heritage of Kylemore estate. In recent decades, this has been evident: Kylemore Trust raised funds in the 1990s to support a refurbishment programme for the estate’s Gothic Revival Church and a partial restoration of the Victorian Walled Gardens. These achievements were recognised with Europa Nostra and RIAI awards.
Building on that work, Kylemore Trust is undertaking a strategic review of the conservation requirements of the neo-Gothic Church and Victorian Walled Gardens. Funded by the Heritage Council, the Irish Georgian Society, and Kylemore Trust this Conservation Plan will be a key enabler of future funding and will allow Kylemore Trust to support the delivery of a major conservation programme for Kylemore Abbey, including improvements in access for people with disabilities.
* Kylemore Trust is a registered Irish charity, led by the Benedictine Nuns of Kylemore Abbey. Its charitable purpose is to support the Benedictine monastic way of life and to preserve the heritage and natural beauty of the Kylemore Abbey and estate. CRA 20071394 CHY 185550
