Shannon Surprise

After dawdling at Doolin we once again headed inland towards the Lakelands, we are due to meet up with Louis and Niamh and our eldest son Joel along with my niece Mai, who are visiting them, in a few days. 

Our first stop though, was a couple of towns, Ballyvaughan on the border of county Clare and Kinvarra, just inside County Galway at the start of the Shannon Estuary. (More on The Mighty Shannon river later.)

These two towns are small and pretty with attractive harbour sides. At Ballyvaughan, we got chatting to a chap from Bath who has been Motor-homing with his dog spending 3 months in Europe and 3 months in UK (Since Brexit) for the past 5 years, even managing during covid. He had wild camped almost the whole time and had never had a bad experience. 

We stayed in Kinvarra, in the castle car park after a visit to Dunguaire castle which dates back to 15th century. Not really a castle but a Fortified Tower House once owned by a wealthy clan family – the O’Hynes. The land at this time would have been heavy woods and treacherous bog making it difficult to travel across, so the sea was the highway of the time. The O’Hynes would visit the Norman town of Galway by boat to sell their farm produce. They probably would have owned a lot of cattle, a sign of wealth, which would be taken inside to the ground floor of the house during the night to protect them against wolves or human predators.

Our night in the car park was pretty noisy with turning coaches and other traffic (no wolves!) and the next day we noticed a few other motorhomes were parked up near the pier despite the ‘No Motorhome’ signs!! 

Our drive along the Shannon was very interesting – such a wide river at the start of the estuary. The Shannon is 360km (224miles) long being the longest river in the British Isles, and it almost divides west Ireland from the east and south. The source of the Shannon is at Shannon Pot and flows into the Atlantic sea at Limerick. 

The Gaelic name for the river is ‘Sionna’ meaning Celtic Goddess and there are a number of Gaelic myths surrounding the name and the river that go back a long way.

We visited a biggish town called Athlone on the Shannon that is situated almost at the dead centre of Ireland. Athlone sits right on the border of Counties Westmeath and Roscommon. 

Getting to it we had crossed from County Galway into County Limerick, we are clocking up the counties!! 

Athlone was meant to be a quick time-killer for us but we ended up on a 6 mile walk along The Greenway, a former railway line, into the town past Athlone Castle next to the Shannon, amongst the cafes and restaurants of the old town, which houses Irelands oldest pub and onto the pier watching boats making their way up the river via the lock. 

We were both surprised at what this Irish Midland town offered, as it wasn’t what we had been expecting. That is the beauty of no schedule or route ,being able to stop randomly to explore. 

That night we stayed at Lough Ree at a campsite on the shores of the Lough/Loch/Lake.

A small family run site that was very quiet apart from an abundance of ducks and we got a good lake-view spot. 

The next day we headed down to Lough Derg in County Clare but not before stopping for a night at an Aire in the grounds of Portumna castle and marina. It was a gorgeous spot with nearby Portumna Forest Park. The weather was lovely so we went on a long forest walk with George, spotting more Red Squirrels who were far too quick to photo. The walk took you around a promontory of old woodland right beside the lake and then back up amongst pine trees where we breathed in the trees magic immune boosting aerosols. 

Eating out in Ireland has been few and far between because many pubs/cafes don’t allow dogs… we can usually eat outside but as the evenings are drawing in this option is best for lunchtime and then a lighter snack made in the van in the evening. We are managing to stay healthy and cook from scratch but I haven’t cooked as much variety as I had imagined.