Home is Where the Heart Is

Seeking an adventure close to home, Alastair Clements and family cross the Irish Sea to trace their ancestry in beautiful south-western Eire

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My daughters both qualify for an Irish passport, yet they’ve never been to the land where their grandfather grew up, and that their mother has always seen as her spiritual home. So Eire seemed the natural choice for a tour, taking in County Limerick, where my father-in-law Jerry was born and raised, and the dramatic south-western coastline.

First, we had to get there. Breaking with tradition, we decided that it was time that mum and dad got a bit of luxury with a fixed bed, so we opted for a Swift Lifestyle 6FB, a Marquis dealer special based on the twinaxle Sprite Quattro FB with a fixed near side double at the rear, a corner washroom, central dinette and kitchen and a parallel front lounge. This layout proved ideal for the family because we could set up the dinette as a pair of fixed bunks, leaving us the huge lounge for relaxing and dining. Once hitched up to our long-term Kia Sorento, we struck out on the M4, crossing the Severn Bridge (whose £6.60 toll applies only westbound) then along the coast towards Fishguard and the ferry terminal. Because the outward sailings are only available at 2.30 – both am and pm! – we decided to give ourselves an easy morning run by spending a night at St David’s Camping and Caravanning Club Site, a beautiful park perched on the hillside above the cliffs near the UK’s smallest city.

That meant we could start the holiday proper before our lunchtime ferry, by heading to nearby Abereiddy Beach – where there’s a free car park once you’ve negotiated the tight and twisty road down. After giving the kids an hour or so to let off steam on the pebble-and-sand beach, we whisked them back up to the site, hitched up the Swift and took the short drive to Fishguard where the