Kevin's House, Achill Island

Arrived Achill 7pm Wed 14 Oct 2020 & immediately struck by the wild rugged beauty & picturesque mountain-scape. We triangulated our visual coordinates between the impressive Slievemore to the north. Croaghan at Achill Head to the west & the faraway silhouette of Knockmore on Clare Island across Clew Bay. With the mighty Croagh Patrick towards Westport to our south west, we could all sense that we'd suddenly arrived at a very remote & special little corner of Ireland. It was great to be here! We celebrated our arrival by getting a big chippy-carryout at Achill Sound to bring up to the house - which we hadn't yet found. Just as a splendid evening sunset cast a bright orange glow across the windswept moors & 6 minutes drive from Achill Sound, we reached our destination. As we opened the huge metal gates, suddenly a flock of five brilliant white, migrating Whooper Swans from the northern subarctic, honked low along the valley between our back door & Slievemore passing over our huge back garden. That haunting plaintiff call of the cold wild north goes to right to the human soul - incredible! We warmly received this timely, wild swan fly-by as our very own personal 'welcome to Achill' from Mother Nature herself. Half light of dusk was now fading as slightly overwhelmed we entered our impressive, great big, new modern house clutching our fish'n'chips. This was to be all ours for the next few days. At last, we had arrived! What a wonderful home, what amazing views in all directions. Property was warm, immaculate & well supplied, owners obliging & welcoming and couldn't do enough to make our stay comfortable throughout. We have fallen in love with the house, its location, the scenery & the island. We enjoyed all the world class beaches within ten minutes walk & ten minutes drive. I revelled in the spectacular bird watching all around the island including, (from the back garden) regular Merlin, Whooper Swan, Crossbill, Twite, Snipe, Raven & daily flocks of passing Fieldfare. Despite the October winds & rain showers one relaxing evening dander out to Ridge Point I had 150 Ringed Plover, 70 Curlew, 50 Lapwing, 12 Sanderling, Dunlin, Little Stint, Snipe, Crossbill, Twite & Sparrowhawk plus all the regular more common birds. Tremendous! We arrived 14 Oct for 6 nights & the family have loved their cosy stay so much we are still here 10 days later. Don't want to go home & can't wait to come back in the spring!

Large house in a lovely rural quite area with very comfortable beds and second sitting room extra turf in the shed about 10 mins walk to beach owners very helpful my family and I really enjoyed our stay here