Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Bell Nicholl's Honeymoon, 1854.

Muckross House.  Charlotte and Arthur left no record of anything else they did whilst in Killarney, other than their trip through the Gap of Dunloe, as evidenced in Charlotte's letter to Catherine Winkworth from Cork on 27th July 1854. However, it is highly unlikely that they would have just stayed ensconced in their lodgings when there was so much of beauty to see and admire in the area. So what else might they have seen and done whilst in Killarney? They more than likely would have visited the beautiful estate of Muckross Demesne which is in a glorious setting located on the small Muckross Peninsula between Muckross Lake and Lough Leane, two of the lakes of Killarney, surrounded by mountains and set in beautiful woodland and gardens. The estate comprises of approximately 13, 000 acres and is 3.7 miles (6 kms) from Killarney town centre.  As the Killarney National Park website informs us: The Muckross estate dates back to the 17th Century when the first member of the Herbert ...

Charlotte and Arthur arrived at Killarney, however, we do not know where they stayed. Pauline Clooney, in her historical fiction novel 'Charlotte & Arthur '(Merdog Books), has them stay at the newly opened Railway Hotel where 'everything was of the highest standard' and there was even gaslight. But, as Pauline acknowledges, there is no recorded evidence of their actual Killarney lodgings. They may well have stayed at the Railway Hotel or indeed at any other number of hotels in the area. Neither do we know for sure what they did whilst they were in Killarney apart from one excursion they definitely did take and  this was a trip through the magnificent Gap of Dunloe. We know this happened thanks to the letter Charlotte wrote to her friend Catherine Winkworth on 27th July 1854 from Cork in which she describes a frightening incident in which she was thrown from her horse whilst riding through the Gap of Dunloe…I assume she would have been riding side-saddle too, given t...