Europe Day 29 - Part Two
Killarney! We made it!
We stopped off a lot at likely looking areas and took pictures, tramping off into the wild.
Killarney is a great hiking area and a huge tourist draw, for that reason. Hiking there is one of the things I’d wanted to do that didn’t work out, so, next time!
So pretty!
My mum didn’t actually come out the car for many of the stops, but she did here.
These probably aren’t in any sort of order.
I’m sitting on a pretty cool rock.
See how cool?
I think these are from my mum’s camera or something… that’s why so dark.
My gramma “I can see the view from here” in the car 8D
I’m sporting a hat I got from a little shop totally out of the way, we saw a sign that said “Kerry Woolen Mills” and thought “Well okay!” and went down some windy little roads. E got a very pretty blanket there.
Awesome.
So we continued on to Muckross house, which is a huge manor in the park becaaause ALL THAT LAND used to belong to the owners of that house (can you even imagine?), and they had donated it to the state.
So, these are my notes, feel free to look it up and find out more/correct me. This family that owned this had ties to the royal family, and were aware that the Prince Regent particularly liked this manner and surrounding area for hunting or something. (they didn’t allow pics inside, so I’m just gonna gab while I post pics of the grounds)
Anyway.
Fastforwarding.
The owners knew for something like… 5 years that Queen Victoria would be visiting, so they did this huge no expense spared renovation leading up to that. The owner had hoped to impress her and gain a night hood.
Somehow, I don’t really understand, a knighthood would have given him more money.
But.
A month after the visit, Queen Victoria’s husband died.
She went into deep mourning and forgot all about Muckross man.
The family went bankrupt (I believe because they used all their money fancifying the place) and…
Sold the place to a family from CA! Who bought it for their daughter (obviously, my parents are slacking). This family… are the owners of Filoli house, here in CA and local to me (We took pictures in our Regency costumes there! :D)
This view, and others, is painted on the walls of the ballroom at Filoli house.
Anyway, the daughter sadly died, and the husband donated the whole estate to the state for use as a national park.
