This morning we went to the Muckross House in Killarney. Muckross House is a mansion designed by the Scottish architect, William Burn, built in 1843 for Henry Arthur Herbert and his wife, the watercolourist Mary Balfour Herbert. With sixty-five rooms, it was built in the Tudor style. Extensive improvements were undertaken in the 1850/s in preparation for the visit of Queen Victoria in 1861. It is said that these improvements for the Queen's visit were a contributory factor in the financial difficulties suffered by the Herbert family which resulted in the sale of the estate. In 1899 it was bought by Arthur Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun who wanted to preserve the dramatic landscape. In August 1911, not long before the First World War, Muckross House and its demesne were again sold to William Bowers Bourn, a wealthy Californian mining magnate. He and his wife passed it to their daughter Maud and her husband Arthur Rose Vincent as a wedding present. The couple lived there until Maud's death in 1929. In 1932 her parents Mr. and Mrs. Bournes and their son-in-law Arthur Vincent decided to present Muckross House and its 11,000 acres estate to the Irish nation. Being called the ″Bourne-Vincent Memorial Park″, it thus became the first National Park in the Republic of Ireland and formed the basis of present day Killarney National Park. In later years the park was substantially expanded by the acquisition of land from the former Earl of Kenmare's estate.
The grounds around the house are very scenic. We walked around to enjoy some of these views of the surrounding gardens.
In the gift shop near the house there is a pottery and a weaving shop. They make all kinds of handmade goodies, such as hats, scarves, lamps and serverware for sale.
We toured the house. Then we went on a jaunting car ride to Torc Waterfall.
It was almost time to check into our cottage. Ross Castle was on our way so we decided to stop there. We hit some rain so we didn't go in to explore.
We made it to the house in the early afternoon. It was clean and very well decorated. We had hot tea and freshly baked apple pie waiting for us. I was very impressed.
Bennett got busy exploring. He was very happy to be out of the car and crawling around.
And, he quickly found his favorite. Great thing about European plugs is you can switch off the current to them so he can play with them all he wants.
We learned that the cottage underwent a major renovation. It's so cozy here, we look forward to spending the next few days at this place.
Beautiful pictures of the estate. Can you imagine living in a house with 65 rooms? It must've been like downton abbey! The cottage is amazing. We stayed in some shady places in Ireland and looks like you guys really lucked out!
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