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

Driving up through the mighty Caha Mountains from  Kenmare to Glengariff.   It is worth clicking on each photograph and video and watching them on full screen to appreciate the splendour of this scenery. We travelled this road by car. Imagine Charlotte Bronte and Arthur in a covered carriage, but a carriage none the less. From Killarney to Glengarriff via Kenmare.                                                   Charlotte and Arthur were now ready to head even further south in Ireland, leaving Killarney behind and heading next for Glengarriff. We know this is their route as Charlotte wrote to her friend Ellen Nussey on 28th July 1854 from Dublin, "We have been travelling about, with only just such cessation as enabled me to answer a few of the many notes of congratulations forwarded... We have been to Killarney, Glen Garriffe, Tarbert, Tralee, Cork...

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 ...