2020 was our shortest season ever in the B & B – we managed to have boats available for longer but the B & B was only open from the second week of July to the end of August – just about 8 weeks. As part of the severe conditions imposed on us to operate a B & B with deep cleaning of rooms on change-over we required a minimum of a 2 night stay. I think most people find they need at least 2 nights to explore Oughterard and Connemara and so this worked out well. The really big change was all the families who came to stay! All the facilities were a big attraction with the tennis court, boat hire and immediate access to the village by foot being the top attractions. We got to know so many ‘new Irish’ families as well – their parents from Europe and the kids with Irish accents. We felt sorry for some of these families who would usually visit parents and family in Europe over the summer but were unable to travel due to the Coronavirus – thankfully they chose to explore Ireland instead this year. It was business like this that kept our business afloat so we say a big ‘thank you’ to all our new customers.

Part of the preparation for the season involved saying good-bye to the recycle of our old cars – amazingly they both started to be driven away – one not having been running for nearly 6 years except to move it to a neighbour’s yard! – We had used the Volvo for parts and the other to move the boats around the garden – the Volvo had 246,000 miles on it so it had basically gone to the moon and was on its way back!