County Clare Farmstay
29 September 2018
There is so much more to travel than just the main tourist attractions at your destinations. There are so many more things to see and do and experience beyond that, so many more ways to feel a unique connection with the places you visit. This is why I love markets and grocery stores, as the mundane of the locals is still a unique experience for you! We also like expand upon our experiences with the types of places we stay...
So far this time in Ireland, we stayed in a quaint seaside B&B on the little island of Inis Oirr, we nerded out in a handmade Hobbit Hole built into a County Mayo hillside, and we returned to a pre-famine village on an Irish cultural site in the very same cottage where we spent our honeymoon... not exactly just dropping in to the nearest Hilton or Motel! We are continuing this trend with our next stop... a farm stay in rural County Clare!
It was a bit of a haul from Galway down to the farm, but that was planned as this is putting us closer to the airport for when we leave. On our honeymoon we hit heavy weather the day we departed, and we almost didn’t make it to the airport in time for our flight. We aren’t looking for a repeat of that! The farm is along the coast in lower County Clare, and while on the map it looks remote, it really is a convenient spot – easy to Shannon Airport, close for exploring the Burren, Cliffs of Moher, and even up into Galway, and yet not too far from County Kerry should you choose to go south.
We left the main road back outside of Kilmihil and made our way down some seriously narrow country roads. This is a very rural part of Ireland, and while that holds a unique beauty, you can’t look more than a glance from the car! We carefully chugged along those small roads with the little strips of grass growing down the middle like green road mohawks, past fields and horses into the countryside, until we finally came upon the farm.
We were greeted by Biddy, the incredibly friendly and bubbly farm owner, and were taken on a tour of our space. It was like a little apartment off the side of their house, with a full bathroom and sitting area in addition to the bedroom. It was such a comfortable little place, exactly what we were looking for to finish out the trip!
We met her family, including her husband who was out farming the fields. Their daughter is an avid horse rider, and they had a field with horses roaming. They also had a newly born baby donkey! We walked through the fields, looking at their animals and the amazing garden full of flowers and vegetables, and we also heard much of the way the farm works, the lifestyle of the farmer, the effect of climate change on their industry, and the importance of a donkey on a traditional working farm. They were going the next morning to a farm show where they were hoping to sell a couple of the young donkeys they had to other farms. Ireland has developed rapidly over the past fifteen years or so and it hasn’t always been an easy transition for many of the country’s farmers. It’s tough to make a living on an Irish farm nowadays, which is why they decided to open their guestroom to hire. Times change, and ways of life move on, but I couldn’t help but feel the same way about the farm as I did about seeing the new houses that were replacing the cottages back in Connemara. So much can be gained in progress, but we don’t often think about the simple things that we are losing. These are important too.
We had the option to add on dinner with our room, and we gladly accepted! Biddy made us an amazing salad, with mostly ingredients from their own garden. Dinner was broccoli soup, salmon and potatoes, and homemade brown bread. Just fantastic! The farm was close enough to Ennis that we were able to make the trip to tuck into a pub for a pint and some music, before heading down the incredibly dark roads back to our little farm stay. The night was beautiful though chilly, and the pitch dark gave a perfect blanket for a good night sleep, before we joined them for breakfast the next morning.
Sure, when you check in to a soulless corporate hotel chain, you know exactly what you are getting. Maybe that’s fine for a business trip, but if you are going out to see the world, don’t just stop your exploration at the tourist sites. A unique lodging on your trip adds another layer of adventure to the journey, and the people you meet along the way are just as memorable as the places you stay or the tourist sites you visit, sometimes even more so. On this trip, we have had the pleasure of spending time with Kieran on Inis Oirr, Stephen at the hobbit hole, Charlie and Dearbhaill at Cnoc Suain, and now Biddy and her family at the little farm in Clare. Each of them added their own stories to our trip, and our journey seems just more full with their presence, and in the case of Biddy… we met as tenants but will depart as friends.
If you have an opportunity to choose something unique over the mundane, I say do it and add to your adventure!
