Mayo architects who designed new €10m Kylemore Abbey monastery win major award

Irish Independent

19-06-2025

Axo Architects, who designed the €10 million Benedictine Monastery at Kylemore Abbey, came ahead of 47 other designs to win the much sought-after award.
Located by Pollacappul Lough, beneath Duchruach Mountain and near the historic Kylemore Abbey in west Connemera, County Galway, the new monastery evolves from a central garth and cloister, unfolding into a series of brick volumes of varying height and scale.
'The result is a serene and timeless structure that quietly complements its landscape through sensitive consideration of context, scale, materiality, and visual harmony,' read a citation from the RIAI.
Headed by Westport native Michael Horan, Axo Architects also designed the Kylemore Interpretation project, which was constructed by Galway-based firm, Carey Building Contractors.
This saw the interior of the abbey redesigned and landscaping works undertaken outside building to enhance the visitor experience.
'We wanted the building, when we designed it, to be understated, to takes its rightful place in the estate but without dominating and without wanting to be brash,' Mr Horan told the Irish Independent shortly after the monastery was named winner of the RIAI Public Choice Award.
A community of 15 Benedictine nuns moved into the new monastery at Kylemore Abbey last year, more than 350 years after their order was founded in the Belgium town of Ypres, where the nuns were known as 'the Irish Dames'.
Today, Kylemore Abbey is one of the top visitor attractions in Connemara. Located 15.5 kilometres from Leenane in County Mayo, the abbey draws an estimated 500,000 visitors to the region annually and employs up to 150 people at the peak of the tourist season.
Built as a castle in 1871 by English industrialist and MP for County Galway, Mitchell Henry, the Benedictine nuns moved into the building in 1920 after fleeing from Belgium to Connemara during the First World War.
Three years later, they founded the renowned Kylemore Abbey all-girls boarding school, which closed in 2010.
Their new home, which is one of the only working monasteries left in the country, was designed to keep the nuns at the centre of Kylemore Abbey while affording them privacy and silence.
Previous the nuns lived in a farmhouse where the nuns were 'living on top of each other' and unable to have processions.
Their new monastery was officially opened and blessed last year by Archbishop Francis Duffy, who described it as 'very rare event in Ireland and perhaps in western Europe'.
The monastery was built with the same type of pale-coloured bricks used to construct the mausoleum at Kylemore. It is the final resting place of Mitchell Henry's wife, Margaret, who died on a family holiday to Egypt in 1874.
Describing the RIAI Public Choice Award as a 'huge' achievement, Michael Horan thanked all those who voted for the new monastery and all his staff, both past and present, for their work on the project.
The Arklow Wastewater Treatment Plant finished in second place in the RIAI Public Choice Awards, which saw approximately 14,000 votes cast by the public.
The 12-classroom building at Scoil Naomh Bríd in Culleens, Ballina, designed by Simon J Kelly Architects, secured third place while the Dún Laoghaire Baths finished fourth.
RIAI President, Seán Mahon FRIAI, said: 'This year's Public Choice Award winner is a remarkable example of how thoughtful, context-sensitive architecture can enhance both place and purpose. The new monastery at Kylemore Abbey demonstrates a deep understanding of heritage, landscape, and community, creating a space that feels both grounded in tradition and relevant to the present. We are thrilled to see the public recognise and celebrate architecture that enriches lives and contributes meaningfully to a much-loved natural landscape and environment.'
This year, the RIAI Irish Architecture Awards received 124 entries, with 48 projects shortlisted for the Public Choice Award — 21 from Dublin, 20 from regional Ireland, and six international projects by Irish architects.
The RIAI Irish Architecture Awards will take place tomorrow evening at the Merrion Cricket Pavilion – itself an award-winning building by TAKA Architects – where the full list of winners across all categories will be announced.