Retreat to tranquility
AWARD WINNING ARD NAHOO FOUNDER NOELEEN TYRRELL TALKS TO SORCHA CROWLEY ABOUT BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL ECO- TOURISM RESORT AND YOGA SCHOOL IN THE WILDS OF NORTH LEITRIM
WHEN Dubliner Noeleen Tyrrell put an ad into Hot Press magazine back in the early 1990’ s little did she know it would change her life forever. Then a jobbing singer, one of the bands who answered her ad came from Dromahair.
Noeleen and her husband Brendan had by then travelled all over the world, spending much of their time in California, but nothing prepared her for the move to Leitrim.
“Talk about fate. I was a singer then. Now I just chant yoga and I’m happy enough with that,” she laughs.
Noeleen runs Ard Nahoo, one of Ireland’s first eco- tourism retreats and yoga schools nestled above a lake that comes and goes amongst the hills of north Leitrim.
“We are over a lake called Lough Nahoo, a turlough lake which is here in winter and goes in the summer. It’s pretty special. Because it’s a turlough it’s protected and there’s a flock of Whooper swans that come every year to the lake. The Celtic Tiger has come and gone. We still have the wilderness that we love and yet we’re only 15 minutes walk from the village,” says Noeleen over a cup of ginger and lemon herbal tea in her candle- lit foyer.
Originally practicing as a cranio- sacral therapist and massage therapist, she’s now found herself as an expert yoga trainer/ businesswoman and champion of eco- tourism in the North West.
The couple started renovating old cottages and renting them out to clients of the flotation room and other treatments.
Before they knew it, they were running Ireland’s first eco- retreat.
“I feel like everything has happened by accident,” she tells The Sligo Champion. “Because I’m a hands- on therapist, that’s where the body functions optimally and that led me to yoga eventually. It actually took someone to tell me, ‘ No, you’re actually in tourism’. Then I was going to meetings and doing courses with the Enterprise Board who were amazing.
“Suddenly I was in business. I followed my values and followed my heart. There was nothing like us when we first set up in 2001. We were just different from all the rest of them from the beginning because we weren’t quite Birkenstock, we weren’t the total hippies even though I’m sure lots of people thought we were. I was going to business meetings, I wasn’t out with the pigs!” she laughs.
“There was a sophistication about us and a standard that was very attractive,” she adds.
Ard Nahoo offers weekly yoga classes for locals, yoga teacher training, retreats for stressed executives, treatments and the cutest eco- cabins this side of Walton’s mountain. Even on a rainy day it looks beautiful.
Surely for such a specialised business as eco- tourism the recession years must have been hard.
“The Celtic Tiger were the harder years for us,” says Noeleen.
“When things really soared is when it was more difficult for us because of the superficiality that was going on. You saw it in the cars people drove, the clothes they were wearing - people took to the materialism like ducks to water. We weren’t offering that,” she says.
In fact, not only did Ard Nahoo survive the crash, it expanded: “We started to grow because people started to appreciate business like ours.
“There’s maybe a recognition that we’re part of something bigger. We’re more than what we are. You can’t say the rays of the sun are separate from the sun. That’s a profound lesson for people who are living in a world where they’re being told that they’re worthless and that they need this, this and this,” she says.
“When you lose that weight, when you achieve, achieve, achieve. Whereas the yoga tells us you’re already worthwhile, perfect, you’re complete, this minute. You need nothing else. It’s a big thing to tell somebody if they’ve been knocked or in a situation where they’ve been knocked by their partner or their family or in their work situation where they’re always feeling undermined,” she says.
The Ard Nahoo retreats are transformative for many guests, fresh from the rat race.
“People arrive on a Friday evening all stressed and they pull in to someething very different. I aways say I should take a photo of them when they arrive and another on the Sunday when they have beaming smiles and shining skin. They’ll have just shed so much,” she smiles.
Noeleen recognises many other tourism- related ventures weren’t so lucky and are still struggling, particularly here in the North- West.
“I think it is difficult. The recession was deadly for this area. You could feel it around the place. A couple of times we’ve holidayed down south in Kerry and it’s when you visit towns like Kenmare or Killarney that make you think ‘ this is what tourism is!” she says.
“It’s shocking to see the difference between here and there. The potential for tourism here is huge. Sligo have really gotten their act together but Leitrim is like the poorer cousin. Look at Strandhill - what they’ve done there is phenomenal. That shows what a community of strong- minded people can do to a place.
“Of course there’s the marketing genius that is the Wild Atlantic Way that is going to make Strandhill and Mullaghmore thrive but just focussing on one or two places makes that place great and everything else falls by the wayside,” she believes.
There is good news on the tourism front however. If recent stats are anything to go by, visitors numbers are expected to rise this year, particularly from the UK and the States.
“One of my teachers from the East Coast of the United States got in touch with me after the Paris attacks and said she didn’t want to travel to Europe becuase of the troubles there. I think you’d have more chance of being shot down in a US supermarket or outside a school. But the general stats are looking like the American’s are going to come so yes, it doesn’t seem to be affecting the mass market,” says Noeleen.
Running Ard Nahoo has become a lifestyle choice for Noeleen, one which she shares willingly with her guests.
“Eco- tourism fell in with the approach that I had. I’ve always had that instinct and fascination with nature,” she says.
Growing up by the harbour in Rush, north County Dublin, she would get up early and search for rock pools by the sea. She also had a father who was energy conscious “by economic necessity”.
Spending time living in California was also hugely influential: “They are aeons ahead of us there. It’s a very inspiring place to live. When it came to opening Ard Nahoo part of it was informed by what I saw over there,” she says.
“I love getting out of bed in the morning. I utterly believe that we were meant to be here. It’s home,” she adds.