Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, County Galway, began as Kylemore Castle, a vast private estate built from 1867 to 1871 for Mitchell Henry and later marked by the chapel and mausoleum he raised after his wife Margaret died in 1874. In 1920, Irish Benedictine nuns who had fled Belgium during the First World War bought the property and transformed it into a monastery, school, farm, and major local employer. Their community, with roots reaching back to a house founded in 1598, made Kylemore a center of worship, education, and retreat. Its restored Victorian gardens and modern academic partnerships reflect its continuing life as a religious, cultural, and visitor site.