During the Victorian era the old Anglo-Catholic-Irish family of Browne, Earls of Kenmare, was one of the greatest landowners in Ireland, holding 118,606 acres of land, the vast majority of it in County Kerry, specifically Killarney and its hinterland.
Killarney National Park now forms most of their great estates.
The Brownes originally inhabited Ross Castle (the roof mark of their house on the wall of the castle remains there today).
In 1726 they removed closer to the town of Killarney and built the château-like Kenmare House.
Lord and Lady Kenmare lived here when they hosted Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1861.
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| Click to enlarge (PRONI/Kenmare Papers) |
The Earls of Kenmare were devout Catholics and, about 1840, the 2nd Earl and the Most Rev Cornelius Egan, Bishop of Ardfert and Aghadoe, met to discuss the building of a new cathedral for Killarney, County Kerry.
The new cathedral was designed by the pre-eminent architect of his time, Augustus Pugin.
When it was built St Mary's Cathedral was one of the tallest churches in Ireland; even today its spire points to Heaven at a height of 285 feet or 86.8 metres (St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast, by way of comparison, is 260 feet tall, having gained in height with its slender modern pinnacle).
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| St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney (Image: Timothy Ferres, 2025) |
Killarney Cathedral today remains one of the largest churches in Ireland, with its magnificent, impressive exterior and interior.
In fact, from the outside it still looks like new.
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| The Kenmare Chapel (Timothy Ferres, 2025) |
Entering the south porch, immediately to the right is the Kenmare Chapel.
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| Monument to the 2nd Earl (Timothy Ferres, 2025) |
The splendid medieval-revival brass monumental memorials to the 2nd and 3rd Earls adorn the wall here.
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| Monument to 3rd Earl (Timothy Ferres, 2025) |
Your eyes are drawn to the tiled floor, with exquisite earls' coronets, cyphers, and Kenmare coats-of-arms in brown and cream.
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| Tiled floor in Kenmare Chapel (Timothy Ferres, 2025) |
The Kenmare vault lies beneath this tiled floor; a solid, square, concrete slab with large brass rings has possibly lain unopened since Beatrice Grosvenor was interred here in 1985.
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| (Timothy Ferres, 2025) |
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| (Timothy Ferres, 2025) |
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