Using local secrets to transform a staycation
In this summer of the staycation, growing numbers of people are reinventing themselves as tour guides to show a new generation of visitors what their homeplaces have to offer. reports
Much of travel in pre-Covid times was about far-flung destinations and savouring different cultures and cuisines. For two weeks every summer we soaked up the Provencal sunshine or swam in the warm waters of the Algarve. This year the pandemic has put paid to many of our travel plans and we’re sticking closer to home.
When Bronagh O’Rourke set up her business running tours of her farm, which is situated inside the Burren National Park last year, she couldn’t keep up with the demand from US tour groups.
But in one fell swoop her bookings got cancelled and Bronagh had to diversify, hoping to capture some of those holidaying at home. She’s found that the pandemic has unlocked a hidden desire in Irish people to explore what’s on their doorstep. Now offering wellness events and yoga as well as visits to the 500-acre family farm in the townland of Boston with its unique limestone pavement, lush grasslands and alluvial forest, Bronagh says the season is going better than she ever expected.
Mum to Annabelle (9), Isla (6) and Alice (3), Bronagh worked for a pharmaceutical company, travelling to London for meetings once a month, but was finding it tough to juggle work and the kids. She knew the rich heritage and diversity of land around the farm could provide the basis for a business showing her distinctive part of the world to others.
The Burren Farm Experience was born after Bronagh qualified as a tour guide over a year ago. Aided by her husband Cathal, who is the fifth generation in his family to farm the land, Bronagh is bringing visitors on wellness days to the alluvial woodland for forest bathing. There’s also a 10k hike around Bunny Lake on the property, and this year Bronagh has brought in a yoga teacher to do yoga by the lake as well as paddle boarding.
“Cathal has all the history from five generations of his family. I bring in all the flora and fauna and the geology of The Burren
— we’re a good team. It’s sustainable and I hope it’s something the girls will be involved in as we progress,” says Bronagh.
She believes that the pandemic has unlocked a curiosity in people to discover the richness that’s right here on our doorsteps. “People are blown away by it — they didn’t take the time to look before,” she says.
The forest bathing idea was born after she read about the ancient Japanese practice of going to the woods for your health and spending time there. “If we all learned something from Covid it’s that we can find beauty in what we have if we just take the time. What we’ve found on the tours is that kids are really enjoying getting back to nature and coming to a farm like ours. You won’t find a swing or a slide but the kids will have a great time,” she says.
“It’s like a sociological and agricultural history of Ireland when you come; our own mini national park within the national park. We had archaeologists in last year and we found a settlement where people lived in preFamine times,” she adds.
Auriel Robinson, originally from Co Meath, had been travelling to the north-west of the country ever since she was a child. When she qualified as an archaeologist and started working in Dublin, she still travelled regularly to Sligo where she was drawn for surfing.
During her trips to ride the waves, she fell in love with Sligo, its big mountains and wild sea and had the realisation that perhaps this was somewhere she could live. She started researching maritime history as well as the archaeology and myths in the area, setting up her business Seatrails to guide others on walking and horseback tours of the area some years ago.
“I’m fascinated with pre-history from the first farmers coming to Ireland and their tombs and their buildings. The tombs always evoke a curiosity in people. I would always bring in the mythology, the archaeology and the science as I interpret our ancient stories,” she says.
Auriel tries to connect the person to the landscape on her trails, describing the landscape in layers from the geology, the mythology, the archaeology as well as the natural environment and the biodiversity. The impact we have as humans on our environment is something she’s passionate about and she sees it as her role to educate people with awareness as they’re walking the trail with her.
When the pandemic began sweeping the world earlier this year she felt the whole season would be written off and the first few months of the pandemic were awful for her business.
But as restrictions eased, she found that people were keen to get out and explore the world closer to home. All through lockdown she had produced videos of her going from place to place keeping people up to date on her adventures. She knew there was a keen appetite for what she was doing in the number of views her videos were attracting.
Auriel says her customers now are Irish people or people from other countries living in Ireland who want to delve deep into their own environment and get to know it up close and personal with the help of an expert guide.
While she may have brought 30 people on a tour in normal times, these days it may be a family on staycation or even a small group of two or three.
‘I would always bring in the mythology, the archaeology and the science as I interpret our ancient stories’
Her trails vary in duration taking in the mountains and the coastline — all you need is a pair of hiking boots and a waterproof jacket. On her Spanish Armada trail she invites visitors to step back in time with a walk at Streedagh beach, one of the most pristine and beautiful beaches in Ireland which was made famous recently for the beach scenes in
Normal People.
On this trail, walkers will trace the footsteps of a captain named Francisco De Cuellar who was shipwrecked after a horrendous storm hundreds of years ago. He was an important figure in the story of the infamous Spanish Armada fleet when they were trying to flee back to Spain after a failed invasion on England.
“I love getting away from everything; to escape to the wilds and that’s what keeps me here. Every time I’m out of Sligo I’m drawn back,” says Auriel.
At her home in Ravensdale, Co Louth, Venora O’Brien, decided that retirement would not mean sitting around taking it easy. Her love of history and hill walking brought her on a tour guiding course and now she’s guiding people through the ancient places of her own homeplace.
“I’ve travelled the world and gone on tours with locals and always delighted in the pride people took in their history. There are so many stories in this area from those about Fionn Mac Cumhaill to the sacred sites and holy wells. I do the most wonderful loop walk over two hours to Urney Graveyard in Co Louth where Peadar O Doirnín, who wrote the lyrics for ‘Mna na hEireann’ is buried,” says Venora, a former social worker.
Some of her walks take in parts of the Táin Trail, which explores the places around one of Ireland’s most epic sagas involving the theft of the brown bull of Cooley and the ensuing battle between Queen Maebh and Cú Chulainn of the Red Branch Knights from the Kingdom of Ulster.
Over the years Venora did many charity walks travelling all over the world, including a very memorable one to the jungles of Sumatra where she visited an orangutan orphanage. Her eureka moment for setting up her own business, Warrior Walks, happened on a trip to Myanmar when she hired a local guide.
“That was the trigger for me. I felt that we have beautiful and sacred places where I live and why not take people out? Mindfulness is a big part of some of my walks. I offer foraging and forest bathing at Feede, a small mountain near where I live. The culturally curious are who I focus on. The people who come out forest bathing want to get away from it all. I like to stop and point out plants along the way or identify a bird calling. It’s a day out. It’s slow and engaging and all about chatting and people enjoying themselves.”