Killarney National Park

We toured Killarney National Park this morning – 25,000 acres with three lakes and the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks (mountains.) The center of the park is Muckross House and gardens, previously a private home but donated to the country by the last owners.  It is a lovely Victorian mansion built in 1843. The most interesting part of the tour was the basement with the kitchen and servants areas. Each room had at least one and often three “doorknobs” located on the walls – through a series of lines and pulleys, when they were turned, they rang a bell in the basement that was hanging along the main hallway. Each bell had a room name under it but, the servants all recognized which room by the sound of the bell!
Queen Victoria visited the family in 1861. She gave them 6 years notice so they had plenty of time to prepare for her arrival! It was customary for the Queen to bestow a title after she stayed with prominent families but, her husband, Albert, died shortly after their visit and she went into mourning and forgot! So no “Lord” and “Lady” ever lived there!
The gardens are lovely and we walked to a pretty waterfall. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t very nice so we didn’t walk as much as we would have liked. We decided umbrellas and windshield wipers would be good businesses in Ireland – sunglasses, not so!
We shopped around Killarney during the afternoon and had a good dinner at a local pub.