Rural pubs are stepping in to meet the shortage of overnight parking for camper vans as designated facilities have failed to keep up with the popularity of the vehicles.
The number of camper vans has soared since the Covid pandemic with more than 20,000 vehicles under licence, but the infrastructure to support them is lacking.
Some designated camper van areas known by the French term “aires” (they are named “aire de camping-car” in France) can be found in locations such as Portumna, Co Galway, and Dungarvan, Co Waterford, and aire-style motorhome parks are in the works in Kenmare, Co Kerry, and Timahoe, Co Laois.
But in the absence of sufficient numbers of designated camper van facilities generally, rural pubs have identified a business opening with this popular form of tourism.
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They are opening up their car parks and facilities to van owners free of charge or for a nominee fee on condition they buy food or drink there during their stay.
Fred Malzard, owner of Malzards pub in Stoneyford, Co Kilkenny, said up to 20 motorhomes checked into his parking area for a recent weekend, bringing customers not just to his pub but to other nearby businesses such as the takeaway and the cafe.
Camper vans can plug into Malzard’s electricity supply. He has seen a large number of French camper van owners park up with at least one guest parked outside every night.
“A rising tide lifts all boats,” he says of the business the vans bring to the area.
“That’s a captive audience in the village and it’s not only [for] me.
“There’s a cafe in the village and there’s a takeaway. Unfortunately, we lost our shop there in recent months but we’re hoping that will be revamped and reopened.”
Malzard sees camper van parking as a natural addition as he has widened the scope of his pub’s operations to cater for weddings, parties and now overnight accommodation.
“There’s a lot of places don’t have the facilities, but I think a lot of pubs are opening up to it. They’re seeing what’s there,” he said.
Total Motorhome Ireland (TMI), an online community that offers guidance on camping spots around the country, has links with more than 200 pub stops that provide overnight parking.
Malzard met Jim McCormick, who runs the administrative side of TMI, about seven years ago and took his advice on board.
Over the August bank holiday weekend this summer, TMI had a get-together at Malzards that brought in 15 motorhomes.
“The pub stops are becoming a big thing now because of a lack of interest in various councils around the country,” McCormick says.
“They aren’t willing to take on board that motorhome tourism is a big, big thing now. There are wee ‘aires’ in nearly every village in France because they know once you park up you’re going to spend money in the village.
“Ireland doesn’t seem to have grasped that in the ways that it could do.”
It suits some motorhome owners better to stay at campsites, but the pub stops are usually a cheaper alternative and seem perfect for many TMI members.
McCormick says some tourists will come to Ireland and travel from pub to pub, only using campsites when they need to.
“Pub stops aren’t for everybody because there are people out there that don’t drink or don’t like crowds,” he says.
“But for people who want a different thing where they’re not going to be committed to a minimum stay, the pub stops are the perfect thing for them.”
On the Dingle peninsula, Pádraig Ó Sé is the owner of Páidí Ó Sé’s Pub, named after his father, the Kerry footballer and manager who built the place in 1985. The pub is located 16km outside Dingle in Ventry on the Slea Head Drive.
Ó Sé says his father “always put a big emphasis on tourism and bringing people to the locality”.
“We cater for everything. We’ve always welcomed campervans, but we’ve seen the prominence of them [grow]. They’ve gotten much bigger in the last 10 years,” he says.
Like Malzards, Páidí Ó Sé’s Pub is on TMI’s register. In recent years, both businesses have benefited from improved public transport in their localities, with local link services providing a greater incentive for camper van owners to park up at rural pubs.
“We started by going on a website called Brit Stops and that brought a few people around,” Ó Sé says.
He says there are no facilities for campervans; they are simply permitted to park up outside the pub provided they call in for food or drink.
It took off during Covid, he says, “when no one was allowed to travel abroad and they’d just started opening outdoor dining and takeaway drinks and takeaway food”.
“A lot of campervans utilised that during Covid and came back,” he says.
“I suppose you could say when Covid kicked in, a lot of people got familiar with Ventry and started coming back to the place.
“There are a lot more apps and websites now suggesting where people can camp up.”
New camper van-friendly stops make the route from south Kerry to west Cork popular. “A lot of campers tend to do that,” he says.
Aoife Daly opened Hearty’s Cottage in south Armagh about a year ago, converting a whitewashed old Irish thatch cottage in an area called Glassdrummond.
Opening a new rural pub is a difficult venture, so campervans offered a revenue stream. Catering for motorhomes came up “kind of organically”, she says.
“There’s a huge community even locally who are motorhome users. They’d casually say, ‘Did you ever consider that this is exactly what motorhome users are looking for?’,” says Daly, who has joined McCormick’s TMI network.
“It’s one thing for somebody to say to you this would look great on paper, but it’s another thing for an actual motorhome user to come out and say this is what works and this is what we’re looking for.”
Hearty’s Cottage is still developing its facilities, but van owners can plug into the pub’s electricity. It opened up to motorhomes towards the end of the summer.
Daly hopes to add showers and toilets in future.
Camper vans are proving to be a valuable source of business
She describes the camper van community as “extremely respectful and courteous”.
“I don’t know if it’s just because TMI have created that community of like-minded people or if that’s just motorhome users in general,” she says.
Situated halfway between Dublin and Belfast, Hearty’s was a popular tourist attraction in the 1980s and early 1990s. The new business from passing motorhomes is helping after the Covid pandemic put rural businesses under particular pressure.
Daly says they are “very fortunate” that nearby mountain hiking trails have provided an interest and that the camper van and local communities have been “very receptive”.
“Camper vans will not prop up a rural pub on their own, but they are proving to be a valuable source of business for those that are receptive to the idea,” she says.
