Shamrock Camper Van tour - June 2023

 Another mammoth breakfast including spring rolls at Assum’s then it took around an hour and a bit to get to Dublin ferry port. The ferry was very busy and the drive home from Holyhead a somewhat protracted but it was all a very enjoyable couple of weeks.

 After a full Irish breakfast, we were taken off to view the local beauty spots. Cloggerhead head a wide sandy beach, but tide was out, CK went swimming SK, ER and NR did a circular walk up to a high point on the coast and then returning to Cloggerhead taking around an hour and a half.  Assum then took us to a small working harbour called Port Oriel where there was a small fleet of trawlers and a few harbour seals to entertain us!  In the evening we had the final team meal at Donegan’s Monasterboice Inn at Drogheda.

Seamus McCormack had kindly offered us coffee in the morning, and we were not going to refuse so more verbatim quotes from Goldsmith and he revealed he had been a lecturer in economics at UC Dublin before “retiring” to take over the family pub. Coffee came with a bite sized lesson in Irish Literature followed by a dose of economics all entertaining only curtailed by his appointment with the golf course.  We visited Lough Ree and the Millenium Wood near Glasson, had a short walk through the woods Charlie decided that the Lough bed was to silted up to wade in and swim. Then it was onwards and eastwards. A quick coffee break in Mulingar and arrived at Assum’s house in Castle Bellingham.  Assum is a friend of Charlie and Steve originally from the Phillipines and had lived in Hong Kong before a stint in North Curry and finally settling in Ireland with her Irish husband.  We met Assum , her daughter and husband  Hannah and Eoghan and 5 month old son Aidean (named after Ass...

pp  Friday 23 rd A rainy morning so we opted for a bad weather pursuit and drove to Kylemore Castle, where a break in the rain allowed us to walk around the walled Victorian garden which extended to 6 acres. Well kept and very impressive. Then onto the house which had an interesting history, built by Michael and Margaret Henry in the late 19 th century out of the family wealth generated by trading with USA from their Manchester company. When they ran out of cash it was sold to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester – she was an heiress family money from a USA oil company. Then left empty when the Duke had gambled all the dosh, and fell into disrepair.  Acquired in 1920 by an community of Benedictine Nuns who arrived by a somewhat circuitous route from Ypres where they had to leave their Abbey in the early years of WWI. They ran a fee-paying school and were able to restore the castle to its Victorian/Edwardian splendour. The school was shut in the early 2000’s due to lack of pup...

While it would have been nice to explore Galway City more, but parking the campervans would have been difficult. Many of the Irish public car parks have height restrictions at 2.2 metres. We followed the coast road to Spiddal .  Charlie went in swimming, and I went in and got out again.  Then it was on to Gourmna Island, quite a detour with a landscape not to dissimilar to the Burren but many inlets which made an interesting drive. We arrived at our evening destination – The Clifden Eco Beach camping and caravan park.  This was 3 miles outside Cliveden in a beautiful spot amongst sandunes with it’s own private beach. Climate Neutral, eco-tourism certified site, lovely but many rules!

 Wednesday 21 st . Today was a day on the Burren, a large area of limestone designated a geopark. We parked and did the short walk to up to Poulnabrone dolmen – stone age tomb. From there we went to Thor Ballylee the home of W.B. Yeats.  He had converted an old defensive tower into his home and a visitor centre had been added in the 1960’s.  Our €5 entrance fee included a cup of tea and some toasted brack a bit like tea-cake.  We drove onto Galway and found a camp site on the edge of the city in an area called Salthill. We got a taxi into town, and experienced the hedonistic delights of the Quay Street area, lots of pubs restaurants plus tourists and students.