Welcome to the Benedictine Monastery
Kylemore Abbey

“You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.””

(Psalm 27,8)

The Benedictine Nuns welcome you to Kylemore Abbey, home to the Irish Dames of Ypres since 1920.

In 1920 a group of Irish Benedictine nuns arrived at Kylemore Castle, Connemara, seeking a new home for their monastic life and mission after the destruction of their home in Ypres, Belgium. For almost one hundred years now, Kylemore has been the place where the community of the “Irish Dames of Ypres” lives its life of “seeking God”, following the call of Jesus in the way laid out by St. Benedict of Nursia in his Rule for Monks written around 500 a.d.

Come and browse in the story of a group of monastic women who have been seeking God in their Benedictine community for over 300 years and are continuing this tradition into the 21st century.