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| The girls' room |
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| Our room |
If you went up the stairs from the main hall was the living areas. To the right was the cozy living room.
It opened up to the dining room
Which was all open to the kitchen. The upstairs was one big circle! The whole back was windows with the most spectacular views!
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| Eat in area in the kitchen |
The kitchen was fantastic with everything you would need!
A young high school teacher named Shane is the owner. All of this land is owned by his parents and he was given this part of the property. He built a house and rents it to pay the mortgage and make some extra money. He said he knew he didn't need that size home right now, but would one day and saw it as a great investment opportunity! We rented the house for the whole week and it only cost $1, 095. I thought that was a great deal especially because we split it between the three siblings. $365 for a week in Ireland isn't too bad! If you are ever traveling to Europe, I highly recommend you always look at the option of renting a house or apartment. Sometimes it works out so much cheaper than a hotel and you can fix your own breakfast and pack lunches which saves money!
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| Shane planted all the roses right before we left |
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| The back of the house |
Muckross House was built in 1843 for Henry Arthur Herbert and his wife, the watercolorist, Mary Balfour Herbert in what is now part of Killarney National Park. Many of her works can be seen through the house and they are stunning. It has 65 rooms and was built in the Tudor style by the Scottish architect William Burn. In the 1850's, extensive improvements were made to prepare for the visit of Queen Victoria in 1861. She came and stayed for one night. All these renovations led to bankruptcy of the family and the home was sold to Arthur Guinness in 1899. He wanted to preserve the dramatic landscape as the home sits on a peninsula surround by two beautiful lakes.
Later it was bought by William Bowers Bourn, a California mining magnate, as a wedding gift for his daughter Maud and her husband Arthur Rose Vincent, who later became a senator. After the death of Maud, Senator Vincent and his in-laws gave a donation of land from Muckross Estate in memory of Maud, which formed Killarney National Park.
The house is gorgeous inside and very Victorian in style. The front entry way and upstairs hall hold a plethora of mounted trophy heads and antlers. One set of enormous antlers is from the Irish Elk which is now extinct. The antlers were found fully preserved in a local bog. No pictures were allowed inside... booooo.... So many beautiful things. The dining room was so elegant with the original draperies from Queen Victoria's visit.
We then headed to Molly Darcy's Pub for a nice dinner. Jemma and McKenzie had a coloring contest with the 14 year old continually telling the 5 year old how she was going to beat her. Jemma is very competitive and was running low with a bit of jet lag kicking in. Aunt Vickie held up the papers for voting which was a tie. When the votes came in and people started commenting, the five year old lost it. We had to go outside for a little break. She almost fell asleep in my arms so I knew our day was done. She was able to regroup and join everyone else, we finished our meal and headed home.
Cristy decided she wanted to give driving a try. She was doing pretty well until we came upon a church letting out. The roads are seriously one and a half lanes. People were on the right with a dog and a younger gentleman was on the left near a hedge. Cristy is an animal whisperer and was not going to come anywhere near the dog which was unfortunate for the man near the hedge. As we went by first, he stepped closer to the hedge, then he saw Cristy coming and stepped into the hedge. As she barreled her way past him, he leaped and disappeared into the hedge!! We were laughing so hard!!! I will never forget that poor man disappearing! Cristy didn't drive after that!!!
