Dunmore East Campsite, Co Waterford

Looking up at the cliffs in one of the many coves around Dunmore East

For the second part of my holiday I went to Dunmore East. The reason was that I had been having intermittent car problems and although it had just been fixed, the issue was a 'trial and error' type fix and I wanted to be fairly close to a main route home. As Dunmore East is quite close to Waterford City, which itself is at the end of a motorway taking me to Dublin then home, then it made sense to go there. The area was also supposed to be warmer and drier with all the bad weather in the West. 

I went to Dunmore East Campsite which is associated with Dunmore Golf Club. The campsite is on the edge of the golf club grounds, although I did not have a direct view of the course from my pitch but it was on the other side of the bank. I arrived about 4pm to reception and found that the friendly welcome I had in Garretstown House was not to be replicated here. I did find the facilities very good and spotless, however there is more of a corporate air here and the staff really aren't that interested in the people who were using the campsite. They were busy so I was put in an overflow area which I was more than happy with. I had a more private pitch as a result. If I was here again, I would quite probably request this area again. 

My little orange tent with a tarp pitched over the top to help with the shade

pic credit to the ASCII website, they do accept ASCII cards here. This is the reception and amenity block.

Credit: Pitchup Website

View from the Clubhouse at Dunmore East Golf Club

seen from the Golf Club, a ship presumably carrying wind turbines

The village of Dunmore East is a historic port that is reminiscent of 'Doc Martin' which as you probably know, is a TV series filmed in Cornwall. It would be fair to say that this coast line has a Cornish feel, there's evidence of past copper mining and the coastline to the west of Dunmore is known as the Copper Coast. It's all very 'Poldark' with secret coves, towering cliffs and winding steps down to the shore. It is no surprise to find that geologically, this area shares much of it's mineral formations with the South West coast of England and therefore this is justifiably considered that this part of Ireland that is a bit like going to Cornwall, without all the Londoners. And to top it off, the weather here is so reliable that it is also known as the 'Sunny South East' of Ireland. 

I certainly had a good number of hot, sunny days - in fact it was really too much for me to bear! 

Copper Mining Works near Annestown, Co Waterford

The Strand Inn which is walking distance from the campsite (down a steep hill)

One of the many coves 

 This one is called the 'Mens Cove' 

That's one way to get down! No thanks....

The Strand Inn became a favourite place to hang out because of it's proximity to the campsite. There is a sort of unofficial route from the campsite that takes a shortcut to the road that leads down into the cove where the Strand Inn is situated. By going to the camping pitches that have the view across the bay, you'll find a gap in the fence. A well worn path across the field will lead to a gap in a hedge beside a gate. The campsite itself is at a much higher level than the village of Dunmore East, so therefore walking down is no problem...but walking back, well that's a different story! 

The Strand Inn does good breakfasts, however there are plenty of other places in the village of Dunmore to eat including two shops that sell Croissants and hot food. I found that the best fish and chips were in a place called O'Sheas which is beside the Fire Station. 

The Strand Inn, Dunmore East

Elsewhere, I visited the nearby village of Passage East, which is literally the name of the place. From it, you can get 'passage' in the form of a ferry, Eastwards! It is the sleepiest wee village and I suspect most people drive straight onto the ferry and don't explore the town. It was so pretty and I was struck by all the washing lines on top of the town wall beside the shingle beach. 

Passage East, the village that time forgot

Passage East, Washing lines beside the sea

To wind up this trip, I went to Waterford City and found a place to park up so I could explore for an hour before continuing on my journey home (which took 5 hours) through Dublin.

Reginalds Tower, Waterford City

This hotel (below) is under renovation and the owner has decorated the building with an image representing the struggle of mental health.

Hotel across the River Suir, Waterford City

Christchurch Cathedral, Waterford City

Staying at Garretstown House, Co Cork

I had a rough plan. Just as well it was flexible and I didn't book anywhere as the plan changed as the holiday went on. What should have happened was that I went to Kinsale, spent two days then went North along the Wild Atlantic Way, calling in to Mannix Point in Caherciveen, then Co Clare, Connemara, Achill Island and finally the south Sligo coastline. What happened was that my car played silly buggers on the 6 hour journey south from Northern Ireland to Cork, on day it 2 went into a garage, and for days 3, 4 and 5 stayed in the garage while a 'fuel pressure gauge' was ordered, delivered and fitted. In that time the weather went pear shaped too, and so when I got my car back I went East instead of North. 

The Coach House in the background

I stayed in a campsite called Garretstown House near the village of Ballinaspittle which is a few miles outside Kinsale. It is a holiday park with mobile homes, touring sites and facilities set amongst the remains of a beautiful and ruined Georgian House. There are two historic buildings, one facing the other and with identical facades. The one that was a residence, is ruined, missing it's roof and too dangerous to go into therefore it is closed off. The other is an old Coach House which has been partially restored and has a large useful space indoors for group activities. There is also an Orangery which is being utilised as a sitting room for adults only. The courtyard houses facilities such as a campers kitchen, playrooms for different age groups and a takeaway. The campsite is placed on what would have been a croquet lawn, and has a magnificent view of the sea in the distance from steps leading down to it. It is a fantastic place, I really would recommend it for a family friendly campsite. The youngsters will love it as there are kids discos and kids movies being shown in the coach house on alternate nights. There is quite a steep hill going up through the holiday park from the main road, which is worth noting for those towing a caravan. You can walk to the beach, which is a 15 to 20 minute walk away, and is downhill all the way but uphill all the way back. The campsite is run by a family, Dennis Mawe is the main person but in my time there I met his sister and his brother and they are all active in the running of the site. The family are really friendly, this is the second generation running the site. They were so helpful when my car broke down and helped me find someone to fix the car. When the car was ready they brought me to the mechanic to pick my car up. When I had no car they were concerned and asking about my welfare. I have to say I enjoyed my chats with the family and felt like I was being looked after very well. 

panoramic photograph

The ruinous main residence

The Courtyard

My little Orange tent on the former Croquet Lawn 

view from the steps

Garretstown Beach 

Garretstown Beach is 0.8 miles from the campsites, although there is really two beaches side by side with a hill in between. I noticed plenty of icecream vans, food stalls and even a massage parlour! 

On my visit to Garretstown House I visited the historic town of Kinsale, which is a harbour town flanked by two forts. One of the forts is in great condition and can be visited. Unfortunately, because I had a dog with me I wasn't allowed into the inner courtyard, however I could visit the perimeter. Luckily this included a coastal path that quite honestly I probably wouldn't have bothered looking for if I hadn't been turned away at the ticket booth. 

Charles Fort 

Charles Fort

Charles Fort 

In Kinsale I visited the harbour, the historic narrow streets, and some outlying areas such as 'Summer Cove'. I found Kinsale to be a really pretty place, however very busy and parking is a problem. There is mostly paid parking spaces however Dennis from the campsite told me where the few free parking spaces where and I got lucky both times I visited Kinsale and got a free parking space. Kinsale puts me in mind Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast where I visited last year. Lots of cobblestown streets, narrow and very old. There's plenty of notices around giving the various histories of places and people which is a great touch. 

Kinsale

Desmond Castle which houses a wine museum

Scilly 

Summer Cove

Summer Cove

Been a long time

Studying, a house move, and lots of other issues have prevented any camping from taking place this year. However I have just returned from my first trip and have lots of pics to show and thoughts on campsites, areas and weather to share!

Maddybenny Meet Sept 2016

Maddybenny Camping and Caravan Park 

Maddybenny Meet Sept 2016

A meet is proposed for the weekend of the 2nd September which is a Friday, through to the Sunday. 

It is in Maddybenny Camping and Caravan Park, which is 1 mile outside Portrush. 

It co-incides with the Airshow weekend and so spaces will be extremely limited. 

The link including the booking details can be found on the Northern Ireland Campsite Forum Facebook page

Link to details of Maddybenny Meet

Solo Camping Safety

Camping solo? Read on....

• Safety in numbers, get to know your camping neighbours and they will keep an eye out for you and your stuff.
• Choose a family run campsite where the family lives nearby, rather than a big corporate campsite where there may be no night time presence.
• If you do go for a big campsite, insist on getting an out of hours number and save it on your phone.
• If you plan to go adventuring, i.e. scaling mountains or go out on the water please tell someone where you are going and roughly when you plan to be back on site. 
• It is often a good idea to have two chairs sitting outside instead of one, then you are not advertising your 'soloness'. Then your 'other half' could be dozing inside while you sit outside happily reading your book. You can put your feet up on the second chair then.
• As with any camping, avoid having lots of expensive electronics and if you do have for example a laptop with you, lock it in the car overnight and don't flash it about the site. 
• You can put your chairs etc away in the tent when you leave it during the day if you want, but I've camped many times just leaving them outside and never lost a chair yet. 
• There is no point locking your tent. If someone wanted to get in it would be noisier opening the zip. They are more likely to slash the tent around the back. See earlier point about safety in numbers.

Have you any additional tips? Please comment below

July 2016 annual hols - The Lake District Part 2

Baysbrown Farm Campsite, Chapel Stile, Great Langdale (photo taken from Baysbrown web page)

For the second week of our holiday (Part 1 here), after consulting the weather report, we decided to move to the Lake District. We settled on a campsite deep in the Langdale Valley, partly because of the amazing views from the campsite, but also because it was close to Ambleside which in turn isn't too far away from Windermere and the central lakes area. What I couldn't know, until we got there, is that even though it is only 6 miles from Ambleside, the roads are quite narrow and so it takes quite a while to get there anyway.

The central Lake District is an area of two halves, divided by Lake Windermere. The Eastern side is easy to get around with roads wide and plenty of amenities. The Western side, where we were, is windy, narrow and steep roads and it is a lot more difficult to get around. However every corner travelled opens a new part of the amazing scenery up to you. The towns and villages are stuffed full of tourists and the car parks, urban or rural, are all very expensive.

I'd been quite shocked at the cost of parking a car in Whitby, but this was nothing compared to the cost of parking in the Lake District. The car parks all have card readers so you can pay by credit or debit card, and you can stay for either 1 hour, or 3, 4, 5 and 6 hours etc, but you cannot pay for 2 hours. I found myself paying for more hours than I needed because I couldn't be sure of getting back to the car in time. In other cases you have to go through a touch screen process at the pay and display because the registration number of your car has already been read and logged by a camera on the way in. Many attractions even have pay and display car parks, and the average car park cost I paid was between £5 and £6 for maybe 3 or 4 hours. I pay 30p an hour at home!

So after a rant about the cost of car parking I can still report that the Lake District is a wonderful place, well worth the visit. The campsite we stayed is on a working sheep farm and is spread over several fields in the valley between very dramatic and steep mountains.

Baysbrown Campsite

Herdwick Sheep, particular to the Lake District

The village of Chapel Stile is close by and walking distance. There is a very pretty walk all on one level to the village, with two routes, one taking a path beside a river down as far as the Wainwright Inn, crossing over the bridge to the village on the other side - or the other walking along the road for approximately the same distance. The village has a shop and a cafe called the Bramble Cafe and there are two pubs. The previously mentioned Wainwrights Inn and not too far further on the Britannia Inn. Both do bar food and evening menus.

We decided that for Elan, in the future, this would be a great stop for camping trips. As he would be using public transport, and the bus stop is immediately outside the campsite gate. The village is close enough to walk to and has enough amenities in it to keep him fed, watered and happy. Even better it is about an hour away from Carlisle where he is a University student.

We went out exploring the area every day except the first. We arrived late afternoon on the Thursday (after driving through that amazing scenery over the Penines again) and we knew the Friday would be a wet one. So we decided to have a 'Duvet Day' apart from a quick run to the shop for supplies.

Over the week we visited Hilltop which is the home of Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator. This was of particular interest to my son because he is studing a degree in Illustration in university.

Hilltop, Beatrix Potters House

Front room of Beatrix Potters House

Beatrix Potters House

We also went for a boat trip on Coniston Water and spent a day at the Aquarium on the southern tip of Lake Windemere, as well as exploring the towns of Bowness and Windemere, and the villages of Coniston and Hawkeshead.

Coniston Lake 

Aquarium

Hawkeshead The Queens Inn

Wray Castle grounds, lake Windermere

We set up my Bell Tent and Elans Olpro Pop along side the track that leads to the farm. The Campsite itself is spread over various fields but this means that some of them are quite a walk from the amenities. We wanted to be a bit closer (after a week of being far from them at Hooks House Farm) and we found a lovely spot to pitch in. The facilities are excellent but there are no plugs to charge anything. You can give your device (phone, tablet etc) to the owner for a charge of £2. We just did without, there was no phone reception anyway. Elan missed the use of his laptop to an extent, but made do with a newspaper everyday and we played Battleships, Cluedo and did the crossword in the paper most evenings.

Bell tent layout

Olpro Pop

Initially, because of that first wet day, we pitched a tarp over the front of the tent. I put it up in such a way that Elans 'pup' tent was under the cover so he could get in and out in the dry. This worked well but after the initial wet period we had no more rain so there was no point keeping it up. There were some windy spells and we had bother keeping the eyelet of the tarp attached the the spike on the door pole of the Bell Tent so because we didn't need the thing there was no point fighting with it.

No matter the weather, the campsite has a stunning outlook. The best view, which I don't have a photo of, was one evening we'd both been playing travel Cluedo in the tent. It was night and both of us left the tent to go up to the amenity block. We were slightly uphill from the Valley floor, which was completely filled up with a layer of mist and we were above it the layer looking down. There was also a full moon  and because we were completely surrounded by dramatic mountain faces it was like stepping in to another world. Wonderful! But even in the rain, the mountains are stunning.

Low lying clouds hiding the mountains

A view from the tent 

A view from the tent

Sun going down

On the Tuesday we had a heat wave. The campsite prints out a weather report and it is stuck up on the door of the washing up area so we knew about it in advance. We'd decided to take a picnic blanket to the shore of the lake at Ambleside because we could find a spot under a tree in the shade and there would be a steady breeze from the lake itself. We brought a picnic and a couple of books. Elan mostly dozed but even with the breeze it was just too hot. Elan then started to overheat and had a severe headache. When we went back to the car the gauge said it was 39 degrees. We went for a drive because the air conditioning in the car was better than being outside. Eventually, we came across a bridge that was over a river with some woods. Elan took his shoes off and went for a paddle in the water  under shade and started to feel a whole lot better. The following day is was more normal a temperature - at around 27 degrees. We ended up in the Britannia Inn, having sandwiches inside in the shade beside an open window with a steady breeze coming in. We Paddy's are not used with that sort of heat! I also realised that this is why I don't go to Spain.

This is my favourite picture of the whole holidays even though it is out of focus (sadly) because it shows Elan being relaxed and happy, which is the whole point of the holiday. 

The Lake District is definitely a place I would visit again and Baysbrown Campsite is one of the best I've ever been on. Again, like Hooks House, it was very quiet late evenings probably because most of the other campers were walkers. We had lots of youth groups stay, from scout groups to school groups and they were often up and away by 6.30am in the morning, without so much as a loud cough! The campsite was so quiet at night that somebody opening a zip carried across the fields.

I found that English campsites don't really have much in the way of social spaces like we have in Ireland, and that I missed that element (in my more limited experience of English Campsites). As much as I enjoyed my holiday in the Northern areas of England, I'm looking foward to holidaying in the relatively unpopulated areas around the coast of my own Island next year. It's good to have an epic odyssey once in a while but Irish campers and Irish campsites will always be my first port of call.