Camping in Ireland

[Hissey]

We are hoping to take our California Beach and two children aged 9 and 15 to Ireland for a couple of weeks touring in the summer holidays and are planning to cover both Northern Ireland and part of the south. Ideally we would like to 'take it as it comes' and stop where we get to each night rather than having to book ahead, but is this realistic in the summer holidays or are all the campsites likely to be booked up?

We like the idea of wild camping, but are not sure how easy it would be to find wild camping sites at that time of year. Britstops are also a possibility but are fairly few and far between in Ireland.

Any advice or experiences would be welcome.

Thanks.

Hissey

 

[Meoncoast]

When touring around the Scottish West Coast, this is how we did it. I knew the rough route we we going to take looked on line before we went away. Then looked at AA route finder to check milage between each site , once away booked by phoning ahead.( on the day) So we had a outline plan but not set in stone. So an example we stayed an extra night on Skye so the days after that ran to a modified time table. (but as not booked ahead no issue)Then another night we found a nice spot by the sea and stopped off there. I woud say go with the flow but just have a "part plan worked out".

 

[barry]

I drove from the northern tip of Northen Ireland down the west coast to Galway City recently for a rugby game (Connacht v Glasgow Warriors). We stayed a few nights in a posh hotel in Galway City but on the way down we campervanned for a week.

There were two campsites that I seriously liked.

First, a remote-ish one at Keel on Achill Island - Keel Sandybanks Site with a really helpful scouser in charge. I would guess no need to book.
http://www.achillcamping.com
Large, very good facilities, huge windy beach 50 meters away, an excellent fish restaurant 300 meters away and several hotel bars 150 yards away with eating. A fabulous bijou beach 5 miles up the road (dead end), too.

Second, a fabulous location within sand dunes with an equally fabulous beach 20 meters away which is safe and kids would love.
http://www.actonsbeachsidecamping.com
Fairly basic but clean/hygenic facilities built in a big barn by an interesting and helpful eco-friendly family.
We're fussy but the location makes this definitely not one to miss.
Nothing nearby except a basic pub 15 mins on bikes (slow folding Bromptons ridden by geriatrics) with good crab sandwiches.

The drive down the west coast from the north is called the Atlantic Way (I think) and was pretty.

I think both these campsites are on ukcampsites network so there should be lots of reviews.
We have spent several holidays on the south and southwest coast of Ireland but apart from the bars and eateries in Cork which were exceptional I was not as impressed by the coast as I was of the coast of Ireland further north west.

+++++ The eco site is popular during hols and gets booked up the owner told me so is worth a ring (he does not over-crowd his site he was telling me).

 

[TwentyOneThirtyFive]

Can't comment on how busy things will be during school holidays as we went in June last year. We also only did the south coast and the Ring. Only campsite we booked was the first one, as we came over on a late ferry and didn't want to mess about.

Generally we had no problem finding nice wild spots apart from the Ring of Kerry, but we didn't look that hard.

Our journey is documented here: https://bettybus.wordpress.com/category/ireland/

Enjoy your trip. It's a beautiful country and we'll go back to see more of it one day.

 

[simplybikes]

Hi Hissey....as you pointed out Britstops are few and far between in Ireland mainly because they are BRITSTOPS not IRESTOPS (apologies couldn't resist that). Our sort of equivalent over here is called Safe Nights Ireland (http://www.safenightsireland.com) which can be OK but is a bit of hit and miss in terms of quality. Depending on where you go there are opportunities to wild camp although these usually revolve around car parks or marinas. The image below is a car park next to the marina in Tullyglass in Co. Tipperary. Beautiful spot and great facilities. If I were you like Meoncoast says above I would put a skeleton structure together involving booking campsites in key areas as a base and then playing it by ear. The following is a web site I came across which has details of locations right around the country where you can park up for free. (http://www.reisverhaleneuropa.nl/camper/ierland/plaatsen.htm) When you go into that site click on the area on the map you want to look at. This in turn will bring up another page and then look at streetview on the right hand side. It will then show you google images of the site. It's a cracker.
I can't vouch for them but some of the ones that I know are absolutely spot on for a night or two.

 

[veg_frenzy]

Just came back from a trip along the WWW: Wild Atlantic Way, http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/campaign/normal-campaign/2013/12/wild-atlantic-way/wild-atlantic-way/

I was in May/early June and we didn't need to book anywhere. However, I was reliable advised that travelling and accommodation at campsites after the school holidays start (July 1st), that booking ahead would be essential to avoid disappointment. If you want the names of sites we stayed at between Kinsale and Westport then let me know. Most came from: http://www.camping-ireland.ie/
In general, they were very good.