It has been a summer of high pressure, but not of the meteorological type, for the businesses along the Wild Atlantic Way that must make hay while the sun shines.
It seems that some are more weatherproofed than others as rain-soaked and wind-chilled visitors enjoy the last remnants of the holiday season.
Take the families who are awaiting the Wild West Children’s Play Centre in Westport to open its doors. “You can just imagine, the kids have been awake since 7am in campsites and Airbnbs all around Clew Bay on one of the very wet mornings,” says owner Tish Gill. “They want to be entertained and their parents need respite, a cup of coffee. We provide that in our indoor playground with its ball ponds, themed frames, snake slides and sensory room and designated toddler area.”
Bad weather conditions during this holiday season and last summer have ensured a bonanza for the play centre, she says.
“It hasn’t only been tourists using the facilities, though,” she says. “Families have been coming from all over the county and beyond for a morning or afternoon of play on the wet days.”
The Wild West’s popularity has been bolstered by the closure of a similar centre in Belmullet, due in part to high insurance costs, she says.
In the centre of the heritage town, Hugh Boyle of Christy’s Harvest cafe notes that, although it is crowded right now, if the weather is bad and he is forced to close his deck area, he loses half of his potential business for the day.
“We rely on our deck – we’re so small inside, and it doubles the size of the cafe – but unfortunately this year there were quite a few days it couldn’t be used,” he says. “Our deck is completely covered with umbrellas but, unfortunately, we don’t get vertical rain here when the wind is blowing and our horizontal rain just blows in on customers.”
He needs two staff to operate the deck and, when it has to close, he can’t just send them home.
“Footfall appears to be down this year too, even with a lot of traffic, but it seems to be going through the town and out to Louisburgh, which appears to be busy, and then on to Connemara,” he says.
“I’m exceptionally lucky to have such a good local trade. If I didn’t, I’d be in serious trouble. Its been exceptionally hard this year with rates and VAT increases.”
That is compounded by the fact he has had to close “a couple of times this year because of staffing shortages. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to get full-time staff. I rely on students during the summer because they are living at home and have no rent to pay, so they can work. Rent in Westport is expensive, and in a little place like this, which pays the minimum wage, or a little more, they can’t afford to rent.”
However, Boyle says many European customers love the bad weather. “We have tourists from Spain, France, Italy and Greece here at the moment and you are almost apologetic to them because of the bad weather, and they are saying: ‘No, no it’s great. We are loving it, because of the heatwave in Europe.’”
Across the road it is busy in the recently expanded Portwest Outdoor Shop, with rain jackets and hiking boots flying out the door.
“Last year was probably the wettest July in my memory and our sales this summer are beyond that,” says Linda Culkin, the shop manager. “It is mainly our rain jackets. Visitors don’t think of bringing them and the Europeans, Americans and Canadians often remark to us that they didn’t think there would be this much rain.”
Many of their customers are climbing Croagh Patrick or camping, she says.
It is all about dressing for the weather, says commercial director Orla Good, part of the fourth-generation of the Hughes family to own the chain.
“It doesn’t matter about the weather, there are so many outdoor activities right around Clew Bay, and Westport happens to be in the centre of that,” she says. “There’s such a wide variety of things to do such as mountain hiking, sea safaris, angling, beaches, even if it’s raining; sure the best place to be is in the ocean.”
That is where Noel O’Leary spends a lot of his time, leading kayaking tours, albeit much farther south, in the waters of the Dingle peninsula. Watching weather forecasts and wind speeds has been a daily priority since he started running Irish Adventures almost 20 years ago.
“I’m not complaining, though, as our location is good for tourism despite the ups and downs,” says O’Leary. “The weather is obviously the biggest factor for us and, when it is windy – anything beyond a force four or five – depending on the direction, we are cancelling or rescheduling our tours.”
Despite the nature of the business, rain puts people off, and he often gets a call to cancel about 30 minutes before the tour is due to start. “We have to reassure them that once they are geared up, the rain won’t harm them,” he says.
“Dingle is our base for the majority of trips out from the pier and along the sea caves, but that was on the borderline this morning, with a force five being a no-go for us. I’m heading into Killarney National Park to bring the group from Ross Castle on Lough Leane instead. It is very scenic with woodlands and lots of legends and mythology.”
Normally his clientele is split evenly between Irish and international visitors, but this year he has seen a significant drop in home tourism.
“The knock-on effect of the shortage of accommodation and price hikes is obvious in Dingle and Killarney,” he says. “Add in the fact that we only had two days in July that were over 20 degrees while August has been a rollercoaster of windy weather.”
Many of his clients reassure him that they don’t “come to Ireland for the weather”.
“Americans, for example, make up over 50 per cent of our international clients, and a recent group of Texans assured me they were more than happy to get away from the heatwave there.”
When it is really bad with wind and rain, we have to try to find alternative indoor things for them to do, which isn’t always possible in the smaller villages
Up the coast at the other end of the Wild Atlantic Way, Séamus and Nora Gallagher have run Ireland by Bike since 2010 in the village of Carrick at the foot of Sliabh Liag, Co Donegal.
“The bad weather both last year and this year has been challenging but we haven’t really lost business because many bookings are made up to a year ahead, so they come one way or another,” says Séamus. “It can be challenging when it is really bad with wind and rain and we are advising people to stay put. Then we have to try to find alternative indoor things for them to do, which isn’t always possible in the smaller villages. Now and again some people say they will tough it out.”
They are undoubtedly inspired by the poetry of his spiel about “cycling in mixed weather offering more dramatic skies”.
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