Killaloe, Co. Clare, Lough Derg Holiday Centre

Our family spent a week at Lough Derg Holiday Centre last August. We rented one of their Marina Walk Houses which comfortably fitted six of us (myself, hubby and the 4 kids). The scenery is wonderful and it was so nice to get out of grubby old Dublin.

We ate quite a few times at the restaurant (I'm pretty sure it's called Evergreens) and the food's far better than one would expect from a

self-catering resort.

We hired a boat on two occasions to tour Lough Derg - I'd definitely advise you to do this as it allows you to see all the beautiful houses on

the side of the lake. We also made frequent trips into the beautiful village of Killaloe which, incidentally, hosts a wonderful Farmer's

Market on Sundays.

The staff were all very helpful, particularly Eileen and Mike who run the park. Mike was always on hand to give advice on where to visit and how to get there with the least amount of hassle.

We've already booked another house for July 2005 and the kids can't wait to go back.......just got to lose those few pounds so I can fit into the bikini!

Unless you are in Dublin, I felt tourism wasn't very well catered for in the parts of Ireland we visited. Dublin was your usual money pit which you felt obliged to throw your Euros at.

The Guinness Brewery experience was just that, lightening your wallet for an experience aimed at the US market - a purpose built attraction, very simplistic and going for the 'wow' factor without actually showing or parting with many interesting facts. For instance, a large glass tank filled with grain, next to another filled with hops with a 'river' of water running through a glass sheet over our heads. Then there was the huge wall with names of every country in the world written on it...why? A continuous loop of samples of old adverts on a few tv screens soon followed. it would have been better to have shown the whole advert rather than 4 second slots of them all. At the end we were given a free pint (well not actually, its all in the cost of the expensive ticket of course!)at the top of the viewing tower, with a lovely vista of Dublin. When we came down to leave, we remembered the advice given to us by the Citybus tour guide - not to photograph the tramp with his horse and cart parked outside the exit as he was prone to asking for payment, currently 10 Euros for the privilege and if you dont pay up you were likely to be menacingly chased by him. Armed with that info, we swiftly avoided the tramp and took photos of the surrounding buildings and the famous St.James Gate. The tramp seemed to have inbuilt radar as whenever we took piccies, he followed and parked his horse and cart in the way!! One fact we weren't told on the unguided tour is that Guinness isn't even brewed there any more!!

Jamesons Distillery was different and in our view, better. You were taken on a guided tour of the actual distillery complete with the wonderful smells of roasting grain. Four volunteers were asked for at the beginning of the tour, at the end, they were asked to sample four glasses of whisky and had to tell which was Jamesons. For their efforts (hardly a problem is it!) they received a certificate saying they were official Jamesons tasters.

On to County Clare and we felt relieved to leave Dublin behind us and head out to what we felt was the real Ireland.

One thing I feel I must point out is that road maps you might buy in the Tourist Information centre might bear no relevance to any signs you actually encounter whilst driving! My other half is an experienced map reader but became frustrated for the first couple of days until he realised getting lost whilst following Irish roadsigns was part and parcel of the whole holiday!

On the first day in Killaloe we came across leaflets advertising the 'Scariff Festival of the Sea'. Considering it's nowhere near the sea we thought it would be a fun weekend out anyway, seeing as it was sponsored by loads of top companies we recognised the names of, we thought we were in for a treat. The first event was a carnival procession...if you go next year, try not to blink or you will miss it!! It consisted of no more than 30 people/children with big paper fish on sticks and some on stilts banging drums, which lasted all of 5 minutes from start to finish!! The Saturday was dedicated to an arts and crafts event with stalls in the closed off High Street. We arrived to find two stalls run by Brits living nearby and the other four run by locals !! By now we were wondering what to expect on the Sunday!!We decided to go for it and head for Tuamgrainey 'Harbour' which was listed as the departure point for the free ferry ride around Lough Derg on the hour every hour from 12 noon. We spent an hour looking for the 'Harbour' - despite looking on the map and thinking it was nowhere near the edge of the Lough, the leaflet said it was a harbour. We gave up following the line of the river and drove back into the one-horse village of Tuamgrainey to find someone had erected a cardboard sign directing us to the ferry trip!! It wasn't there at 12 noon!! We drove down the track to find a little car park that was stuffed to the hilt with 9 cars so we had to park out on the track. There were 60 people already waiting at the harbour which was no more than a bend in the river leading to the Lough!!!When we saw the ferry arrive stuffed to the gills and reminiscent of a third class train carriage ride in India, we decided not to take the free trip and went into Killaloe instead and paid 4 Euros each to take the safe, less 'sardine-in-a-tin' like option on the ferry that leaves next to the bridge. I can well recommend O'Briens pub in Tuamgrainey though, it looks small on the outside but extends way back. The food was wonderful and if you eat it in the bar side as opposed to the restaurant side, it's very cheap. 5 Euros (about £4? )for roast leg of lamb with veg, which was just that, a whole leg, a real bargain.

If you are into castles then County Clare is a real delight. Dromoland was built by the O'Briens and has been turned into a hotel and holds medieval feasts. If you are near Limerick, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is a must - another O'Brien home (as was most of the castles in County Clare we found). Leave a day free just to visit Bunratty, the castle itself is open and in the grounds are thatched cottages that you can go inside to see what life was like. The open peat fires are really just that, no tricks of technology so keep an eye on the kids. At certain times of the day you can see butter being made and in another cottage a lady made soda bread on an open fire. We were allowed to sample both and I'll never forget the taste and smell....mmmm wonderful stuff. In another part of the grounds is the Victorian Bunratty village itself complete with pub and some shops that you can buy things in still that was a real step back in time.

The many castles we saw listed on the OS map were left overgrown and in ruins and when we went there, we weren't allowed anywhere near them as they were still on private land. As I said earlier, Tourism doesn't seem to be catered for.There is a wealth of untapped sources, yet for those on a fishing holiday, the hundreds of lakes were well signposted, even to the extent of what type of fish could be caught, yet castles are a no-no!

The area north towards Galway was spectacular, especially The Burren with it's Neolithic tombstones and many replicas on the unusual landscape left by more recent tourists to the site. The Cliffs of Moher are also worth a visit near the town of Liscannor further south, the view is quite stunning. Entrance is free if you are walking, but car parking was 4 Euros to be paid on the way out, except if you leave after 7pm when the attendant has gone home and left the barriers up! You do have to pay a small fee to go into O'Briens Tower at the top of the steps to the right though, we walked the cliffs and got back to the tower just after it had closed at 6pm but the sign said it was 1.5 Euros.

Craggaunowen Hill Fort between Killaloe and Limerick was another place I'd recommend a visit to, quite an amazing place and one of the very small few where catering for tourists other than fishermen, golfers or horse-racing fans has finally registered in someone's mind!

The town of Ennis was beautiful, from the Abbey commissioned by (yes you guessed it) the O'Briens, with old fashioned shops that was a delight to buy from. Old fashioned courtesy and customer service was full on and a real pleasure.

On the downside though (although the locals all wont agree I'm sure) was the sheer volume of new houses and bungalows being built. Apparently the government has paid grants to locals to knock down their old houses to build new - the only traditional thatched cottage we saw was purpose built ones in Bunratty Folk Park! It's quite an incredible site to see a beautiful rundown slate cottage right next door to something so ugly that it wouldn't go amiss sat next to Southfork ranch from Dallas!! The owner of the holiday park at Killaloe said the government recognised the problem and has curbed all new building, even the locals call it 'Bungalow Blight'...they were 100% right! Huge homes with chipping drives cutting swathes through the countryside painted in garish pinks, reds and blues resembling dutch barns look totally out of keeping. We saw them on every and lane we drove on. Shame.

Would I go back tomorrow though? Yes I would, we intended to spend a week in County Clare before moving on to Wexford, but found so much to see there that it took up the whole holiday.

Whilst in Killaloe we went to visit the other closest campsite in nearby Mountshannon called 'Lakeside'and weren't impressed at all. We went to see if it was worth stopping there the next time but it's not. It's a large site, with huge overbearing fir trees that gave it a morbid feel. Added to that were ancient 1940's wooden chalets and a large ugly overwinter area for locals caravans that was part of the site,everything was old and in dire need of an overhaul.

My ratings below are purely attributed to Lough Derg Holiday Park as Camac Valley I feel isn't worth the mention.