Kylemore Abbey Gothic Church is a cathedral in miniature, and is based on some of the great English gothic churches of the 12th and 13th centuries. The architect of the church was J.F. Fuller, who was well known for his designs throughout Ireland, and although the cathedral may be small in comparison to some of its grandiose English equivalents it is more than made up for in its beautiful details. Incorporated into the church are many of the features typical of the Decorated style, including dog-tooth ornament, intricately carved vault bosses, and detached marble tracings.
In order to accomplish the effect that Fuller was looking for, he incorporated a variety of stone types in its construction. The exterior is built of local schist, a 600-million year-old metamorphic, or "changed" rock, in order to help blend the structure into its surroundings. The interior is largely built of limestone from Caen, France, with notable accents of colorful Irish marble. The black marble comes from Kilkenny, in the south of Ireland, and the red from County Cork.
Perhaps the most beautiful of all, however, is the green marble that comes from Connemara. This marble is an example of another type of metamorphic rock, which began life as limestone, laid down on the sea floor of the "proto-Atlantic" over 600 million years ago. The collision of North America with Europe 450 million years ago heated and squeezed this limestone, changing it into the marble that now underlies any of the valleys in this part of western Ireland.
