08/22/2025
Day 5 Cont.:
After we finished at the Abbey we walked about 20 minutes to the Muckross House and Gardens. This is such a beautiful house and there is so much to see.
The history of the Muckross estate goes as far back as the [17th century] when wealthy Welshman, Henry Arthur Herbert, came to settle in Killarney.
Herbert builds the impressive Muckross House in Killarney as a home (very fancy altogether!) for his family and it was completed in 1843.
Extensive landscaping was carried out by the family in 1861, creating the Muckross Gardens and just before Queen Victoria came for a visit.
By the late 19th century, the Herbert family were faced with a series of financial problems ending their 200-year reign and in 1899, the whole 13,000 acres of estate was sold to Lord Ardilaun, who was a member of the Guinness family.
He then sold the property to Mr. William Bowers Bourn, a Californian, in 1911, who then gave the estate to his daughter Maud on her marriage.
Maud carried out many developments to the estate until her death in 1929 and then the estate was gifted to the Irish State in 1932.
In 1964, Muckross Estate became Ireland’s first National Park, which we now know as Killarney National Park.
