Victoria ‘alarmed’ by rain during Killarney visit

She ought to have known better, but Queen Victoria was “alarmed’’ when, surprise, surprise, it rained during her visit to Killarney.

Like countless thousands of other tourists before and since, she took a boat trip on the famous lakes during her stay in Aug 1861. She was rowed first around Innisfallen and then some way up Lough Léin.

She wrote afterwards in her diary: “The view was magnificent. We had a slight shower, which alarmed us all, from the mist which overhung the mountains; but it suddenly cleared away and became very fine and very hot.’’