Overview
Grace Kelly bought this cottage. In June 1976 the Princess of Monaco paid IR£7,800 (some accounts put it at £7,500) for the roofless three-room shell where her grandfather was born, plus 35 acres around it, meaning to keep it exactly as it stood. It sits in the townland of Drumilra (Irish: Droim Iolra, ‘Eagle Ridge’), about 6km from Newport in County Mayo, a small rectangular stone cottage with pointed gables and a central chimney, looking down over Drumgoney Lough, the Leg of Mutton Lake. It’s deliberately left unsignposted, and that’s the point of the place: no visitor centre, no plaque, no fuss.
Be honest with yourself before you go: there is very little to see here. The draw is the story, not the stones. If you know it before you arrive, the cottage lands; if you don’t, it’s a ruin in a field.
From Drumilra to Hollywood
The cottage dates to the 1840s or 1850s. John Henry Kelly was born in it and left Ireland in 1887, aged 30, in the long shadow of the Famine. He settled in Philadelphia and built a successful brickwork and construction firm. His son, John B. Kelly Sr., won three Olympic gold medals for sculling and raised a prominent family in Pennsylvania, and it was John Sr.’s daughter, Grace Patricia Kelly, who became one of cinema’s most celebrated actresses before marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956. For all that, she kept the Mayo thread, coming back to Drumilra three times.
The 1961 visit and the unfinished dream
Grace’s most famous visit fell on 15 June 1961, during a state tour of Ireland. The cottage then belonged to an elderly local woman known as Widow Mulchrone. By local accounts, the roof was freshly thatched for the occasion, the hedges trimmed and the path sanded; Mulchrone spent the morning baking griddle cakes and polishing her best china, served tea in her ‘good room’ with a black kettle on the open fire, told stories and recited a poem written for the day, later calling it the most important day of her life. Grace sent her a Christmas card every year after.
When Grace returned in 1976 and bought the cottage and its 35 acres, she wanted the original structure kept as it was and commissioned plans for a new holiday home nearby. Mayo County Council granted permission in 1978, and she reviewed the designs on a final visit in 1979. Construction never began. She died in a car accident in Monaco in 1982, aged 52; locals from Drumilra gathered wildflowers from the fields around the homestead to send to the funeral. The property passed to her three children, Caroline, Albert and Stéphanie, who weighed restoration proposals in 1995. Prince Albert visited with Princess Charlene in April 2011, and in March 2023 a bronze statue of Princess Grace was unveiled in Newport, with Prince Albert present.
What to see
- The stone shell – walk the perimeter of the three-room cottage to read the floor plan, the pointed gables and the central chimney stack. The walls stand high enough to picture the layout of a typical 19th-century Mayo home.
- The setting – the homestead is on a gentle rise above Drumgoney Lough, open fields and hedgerows running off toward Clew Bay. It’s a quiet spot for a short walk in west Mayo’s countryside.
- The statue in Newport – a short drive away, the bronze of Princess Grace stands as the town’s permanent tribute, and it pairs naturally with the cottage.
Practical information
The Kelly Homestead is free to access and open year-round, without formal hours or staff. Because it’s on private land and intentionally unsignposted, a few things matter:
- Finding it – the cottage sits on a minor boreen off the R311 between Newport and Castlebar. Navigating to ‘Drumilra, Newport’ gets you close; then look for the faint footpath across the fields.
- Terrain – uneven, grassy ground, no paved paths, ramps or facilities. Wear sturdy footwear. It is not wheelchair accessible.
- Respect the property – this is private land. Stay on established tracks, don’t climb the walls, and leave the stones and vegetation as you find them.
- Facilities – none on site. Park responsibly in Newport or along the main road, and plan to eat and refuel in Newport or nearby Westport.
- Best time – early morning or late afternoon gives the softest light and the fewest interruptions; a winter visit gives a starker view of the shell against bare fields.
Park in Newport, see the statue first, then drive out to the cottage knowing the story. The stones don’t tell it themselves, and no one out here will tell it for you.