Tourism is continuing to boost revenue in Connemara’s Kylemore Abbey, which last year returned profits of over three quarters of a million Euro according to newly released accounts.
The Kylemore Trust of the abbey’s Benedictine community announced an excess of income over expenditure of €823,856 for the year ending December 31, 2016, with this being reinvested in conservation and restoration work at the abbey.
The 19th-Century castle and estate, which has been home to a community of Benedictine nuns since 1920, after the sisters abandoned their own abbey in Ypres, Belgium, during the First World War, is the leading tourist destination in the west of Ireland, with 320,000 people visiting the abbey last year, and provides employment for 120 people in the area.
Financial position
“The strong financial position will fund conservation work to the historic building at this time,” Kylemore Trust spokesman John Madden said, adding: “This work on the Castle building is essential to ensure the long-term viability of Kylemore Abbey as the main source of income for the Benedictine community and its mission at one of Ireland’s leading tourist destinations.”
The main abbey building is in need of urgent maintenance to prevent decline, Mr Madden said, as well as requiring constant upgrading of visitor amenities and utilities.
The University of Notre Dame opened a new campus in St Joseph’s Hall on the abbey grounds last year.