Keem Achill

Jaden · 08-06-2021 11:01am #1

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2021/06/07/call-for-emergency-bye-laws-to-prohibit-overnight-parking-at-achills-keem-bay/

I'm a bit conflicted - they're talking about a ban on overnighting there. I was there on Saturday, and it was mobbed - ingress and egress was painfully slow. Both car parks were packed, and the road was lined with vehicles. The place is not setup to handle the volumes that were there.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems it wouldn't be that hard to facilitate overnighting without the logjam. More toilets, somewhere to handle waste, and an area designated for pitches would go a long way.

Shutting off access isn't a solution, it's a reaction.

8valve · 08-06-2021 11:34am

I'm new to the MH scene, having just got our first camper...after a decade of talking about it!

Towns in Ireland (and the local residents/councillors) seem to be in two polar opposite camps:

1. Throwing their arms out to welcome campers and motorhomes, creating facilitated stopover sites, or

2. NIMBY: pesky vans, taking all our parking spaces, blocking our roads, dumping their rubbish and waste waters all over our beautiful parish!

delynet · 08-06-2021 1:25pm

Keem is a magical place and I can see the attraction. It is a difficult one to solve. A narrow access road. Any attempt to widen that will destroy the area. Very limited parking, an upper area which is popular with campervans and the lower which is used a lot by cars. Any plans here would need to be super sensitive as Keem bay is a small place, more services, parking, etc.. will destroy it.

I go to Achill a lot, 6 times so far this year. Normally we park up in Keel in both the campsite and wild in the field next to the campsite and it works out well. I am also lucky in that I can cycle to Keem and enjoy the surroundings. Granted that is not for everyone but they do have a shuttle bus.

Last weekend was crazy busy all over Achill. 20 min queues in Keel to order food which took another 45 min. Not complaining as its great to get out but you do need to factor this into your plans.

With the crowds and bad press I am looking at other options. Further north up around Blacksod gives a simiar experience of Achill but with almost zero crowds.

Jaden · 08-06-2021 1:35pm

Yeah, the campervan park in Keel was packed last weekend, with 30 or 40 more campers in the field next to it as overflow. Factoring in another dozen scattered in the gravel car park, and even down at the waterfall, and you had 50 campers in Keel that we not in the park.

Keem had maybe 6 or 7 Campers, and even Seal Bay had the same.

niloc1951 · 08-06-2021 11:15pm

The basic problem is this.

Add up all the pitches listed in the Camping Ireland guide book then deduct the number of 'pitches' which are occupied by mobile homes or seasonally sited caravans and you will find there are only about 2,500 touring pitches available for tourers.

Apart from caravans and tents, there are 14,000 motorhomes currently on the road in the 26 counties, not to mind tourists from Northern Ireland, The UK and mainland Europe.

As the old saying goes 'you can't fit a quart into a pint bottle'

Freedive Ireland · 09-06-2021 9:53am

Imho leave Keem as is. They may have to manage the traffic before the ascent or something or it may blow over when people start heading abroad next year. Fwiw, it's pushed some of us to look at new spots which can be interesting.

Furze99 · 09-06-2021 10:07am

niloc1951 wrote: »

The basic problem is this.

Add up all the pitches listed in the Camping Ireland guide book then deduct the number of 'pitches' which are occupied by mobile homes or seasonally sited caravans and you will find there are only about 2,500 touring pitches available for tourers.

Apart from caravans and tents, there are 14,000 motorhomes currently on the road in the 26 counties, not to mind tourists from Northern Ireland, The UK and mainland Europe.

As the old saying goes 'you can't fit a quart into a pint bottle'

Becoming a big issue in many coastal areas - substantial parts of carparks being taken over for weekends by campervans etc. Other folk who just want to come & go for an hour or two can't get in.

Was in Achill last year and it was crazy with all the campervans at Keel and elsewhere. Never seen so many in one area at one time. Then the islands public water supply collapsed. Of course all the holiday lets contributed to that as well but you can guess where the finger was being pointed at.

You can get too much of a good thing, a few campervans are grand but you soon reach a point where they become unwelcome. If this trend continues, expect to see barriers going up at all coastal carparks etc.

On other hand, it may encourage the development of paid parking facilities.

sumo12 · 09-06-2021 10:13am

Furze99 wrote: »

On other hand, it may encourage the development of paid parking facilities.

Now you have it. Welcome the campervans and put in proper parking facilities for a small fee. When I pull in, I will drink pints, eat ice cream and buy dinner, the same as any other tourist. Putting barriers in is not the answer - I'll spend my money elsewhere.

Ireland is way behind Europe with the Aires system. We travelled through France and it is superb. Dedicated parking, fresh water and grey water disposal for a small fee. No campervans clogging up seafronts or parking illegally.

Number of campervans is only going to increase so something positive needs to happen.

8valve · 09-06-2021 12:38pm

A bit of lateral thinking and a paintbrush could work.

Mark out spaces for campers.
Paint temporary car spaces in front of those.
If car driver wants to park for a couple of hours, check with camper occupants; if they're not stirring for a day or two, park away.

Idealistic, I know.

Maybe I'm just blue-sky thinking, outside the box, trying to set us up for success, going forward :-)

God, I miss working in the corporate ratrace. NOT :-)

Jaden · 09-06-2021 1:08pm

In Keem specifically, the answers look pretty straightforward.

2 Meter barrier up on the lower car park. Dedicate Camper Spaces on the upper.

That building and it's grounds is ideal as a campsite and/or hostel.

Coffee Dock and optional mobile food wagon, and you'd clean up.

Call me Al · 09-06-2021 1:21pm

Its not an appropriate spot for a camping site. It's got restrictive access, plus all the hills around are commonage used for sheep grazing.
There's a good reason why there's a massive sign saying no campfires. The guards had to deal with 50 of them on one night over the weekend.

_Brian · 09-06-2021 3:48pm

While i definitely think we need more facilities for camper parking we cannot have a bunch of spaces for overnight at every scenic location in the country, it doesnt happen across europe so I wouldnt be expecting it to happen here..

Keem and similar spots are dificult with such a narrow approach road and only one access road, I think the shuttle bus is a great solution..

The pressure for parking locations should be aleviated next season as people head across to Europe again, until then its a case of stick it out, be patient and respectful..

niloc1951 · 10-06-2021 7:26am

_Brian wrote: »

While i definitely think we need more facilities for camper parking we cannot have a bunch of spaces for overnight at every scenic location in the country, it doesnt happen across europe so I wouldnt be expecting it to happen here..

...........................

Yes it does
There are over 20,000 overnight parking areas across mainland Europe. The price range per 24 hours is between free (where it is important to attract visitors) to about €15 (where there is an established high demand at a premium resort area).
In France alone there are about 7,500 places, which is why the country is so popular with motorhome-based tourists from all over Europe, including Ireland.

[Deleted User] · 10-06-2021 8:31am

niloc1951 wrote: »

Yes it does
There are over 20,000 overnight parking areas across mainland Europe. The price range per 24 hours is between free (where it is important to attract visitors) to about €15 (where there is an established high demand at a premium resort area).
In France alone there are about 7,500 places, which is why the country is so popular with motorhome-based tourists from all over Europe, including Ireland.

niloc1951 wrote: »

The basic problem is this.

Add up all the pitches listed in the Camping Ireland guide book then deduct the number of 'pitches' which are occupied by mobile homes or seasonally sited caravans and you will find there are only about 2,500 touring pitches available for tourers.

Apart from caravans and tents, there are 14,000 motorhomes currently on the road in the 26 counties, not to mind tourists from Northern Ireland, The UK and mainland Europe.

As the old saying goes 'you can't fit a quart into a pint bottle'

Are these two sets of numbers comparable?

Shoog · 10-06-2021 8:49am

Unless councils provide stopping off points and facilities, any that private individuals provide would likely be massively expensive and would not get used. Some landowners may see this as another opportunity to make a quick buck. We don't use many campsites because most of them are to expensive and expect you to be happy with an ugly wind swept pitch on the side of a hill. The problem seems to be that most people who attempt to run a campsite in Ireland have never camped and have no real empathy with what campers actually want.
hopefully the passion for Campers will fade as the pandemic fades.

Shoog

listermint · 10-06-2021 8:54am

Shoog wrote: »

Unless councils provide stopping off points and facilities, any that private individuals provide would likely be massively expensive and would not get used. Some landowners may see this as another opportunity to make a quick buck. We don't use many campsites because most of them are to expensive and expect you to be happy with an ugly wind swept pitch on the side of a hill. The problem seems to be that most people who attempt to run a campsite in Ireland have never camped and have no real empathy with what campers actually want.
hopefully the passion for Campers will fade as the pandemic fades.

Shoog

Most likely it won't. Air travel is only going one way in terms of cost.

Anyone with a camper should be urging proper facilities to be built. The end. You should be wishing for people not to take up camping. That's just bizarre

niloc1951 · 10-06-2021 9:09am

pg633 wrote: »

Are these two sets of numbers comparable?

Those stats are referencing different aspects. One is the number of touring pitches within the caravan and camping parks of Ireland the other references the number of areas where overnight parking is available on mainland Europe.
Parking areas can provide between a few bays to over 200 bays.
So the two sets of numbers are not comparable because they speak to different things

Shoog · 10-06-2021 9:12am

listermint wrote: »

Most likely it won't. Air travel is only going one way in terms of cost.

Anyone with a camper should be urging proper facilities to be built. The end. You should be wishing for people not to take up camping. That's just bizarre

i have seen good examples of local councils putting in facilities when out and about this year. However no council can be expected to cope with a public which has so little imagination that they all head to the same dozen or so honeypot locations on the same few weekends.
Its easy to avoid the crowds if you show a little imagination.

Shoog

Call me Al · 10-06-2021 9:52am

Keem beach being discussed on Pat Kenny newstalk radio now.

listermint · 10-06-2021 9:55am

Shoog wrote: »

i have seen good examples of local councils putting in facilities when out and about this year. However no council can be expected to cope with a public which has so little imagination that they all head to the same dozen or so honeypot locations on the same few weekends.
Its easy to avoid the crowds if you show a little imagination.

Shoog

Maybe it should be well advertised with failte Ireland . They spend budget on other nonsense how about sharing information to the Irish public .

niloc1951 · 10-06-2021 10:09am

Shoog wrote: »

i have seen good examples of local councils putting in facilities when out and about this year. However no council can be expected to cope with a public which has so little imagination that they all head to the same dozen or so honeypot locations on the same few weekends.
Its easy to avoid the crowds if you show a little imagination.

Shoog

That's the problem, as you say we only have a few dozen locations here in Ireland. In France there are over 7,500, if we had a pro-rata number per capita it would be about 700.

galwaytt · 10-06-2021 11:11am

Freedive Ireland wrote: »

Imho leave Keem as is. They may have to manage the traffic before the ascent or something or it may blow over when people start heading abroad next year. Fwiw, it's pushed some of us to look at new spots which can be interesting.

I was there on Sunday - and the Gardai had the road closed to all vehicles before the ascent. You could catcht the shuttle bus or walk it.

Unless of course, like the group we were with: were on motorbikes........

_Brian · 11-06-2021 2:41pm

niloc1951 wrote: »

Yes it does
There are over 20,000 overnight parking areas across mainland Europe. The price range per 24 hours is between free (where it is important to attract visitors) to about €15 (where there is an established high demand at a premium resort area).
In France alone there are about 7,500 places, which is why the country is so popular with motorhome-based tourists from all over Europe, including Ireland.

I'm very familliar with France having holidayed there for 16 of the last 18 years..

Yes there are facilities for overnighting in your camper... But rarely right at the beauty spots.

iwillhtfu · 11-06-2021 2:50pm

One of the worst things about social media was highlighting all of these what used to be quiet slices of paradise.

Putting in camper van spots would completely ruin it and no doubt be abused by folks turning up and just staying put for as long as they like. I'd be more in favour of banning cars/campers altogether from the area and if you want to see it you'll have to put in a bit of leg work. Obvious exception being those with invalid cards displayed and not being abused in their typical fashion.

I see the NC500 arguments have already begun with motorhomes driving on roads entirely unfit for them. The same craic every year and still it continues.

_Brian · 13-06-2021 10:26pm

Access to the continent next year will relieve allot of pressure, we’d usually go for 3 weeks ourselves and god wiling next year we will again.

This year it’s head down and stick it out.

Keem Achill

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