There's a shop full of furry, mohair cuddliness nestled in the foothills of Slieve Rushen, Co Cavan. The first sign that you've entered somewhere unusual is the zip wire for teddies strung between the trees. A bear in full safety harness is likely to come plummeting through the air above you. Bear Essentials is a teddy bear hospital and showrooms within the boundaries of the Marble Arch Caves Geopark in Cavan.
The shop is full of stuffed animals of all shapes and demeanours staring plaintively out at you; imploring you to take them home. It's hard to leave without rescuing at least one. There are Bukowski Bears from Sweden, Charlie Bears from Britain, and the biggest range of German Steiff bears in Ireland – both rare collectables – and their commoner cousins.
The finest bears by far are those made by Anke Morgenroth, owner of Bear Essentials, who hails originally from Hamburg. Her one-off, fully-jointed, mohair bears have a dress sense to match: silk kimonos, Norwegian felted jackets, vintage Swiss dresses and tweed suits. These are not your typical passive teddies. Their expressions range from pensive and playful, to puzzled and penitent.
Morgenroth runs year-round bear-making workshops where children and adults get to stuff and sew a bear and tailor it as they wish. She also leads more complex mohair craft bear workshops where you make a fully jointed bear using centuries-old techniques.
To find a shop of similar quality you need to travel 200km to another German-run toy emporium in Galway, where for 30 years the Ulrichs have been running Wooden Heart in a gloriously Dickensian 16th century stone building opposite Tigh Neachtain. Generations of Galwegians have been nurtured on its colourful educational toys which are laid out over three stories in a tall, turret-like building.
Wooden Heart is all about promoting skills in a playful way. There are windmill and solar photovoltaic kits that form battery-free machines and beautifully sewn French marionette puppets. The Ulrichs stock 14 types of hand-painted Russian nesting dolls and eight spinning tops. The tin toys from France are more akin to artworks than play things.
The most covetable of wooden toys are those which have been perfected over 50 years by Heimass in Germany. Such longevity is common among the manufacturers. Reploge has been making globes in Chicago since 1930; Pintoy has produced rubberwood toys from tapped-out latex trees since 1987.
Lest we forget that the Irish can create fine toy shops too, consider the Doll Store and Hospital, which moved from George's Street to Powerscourt Townhouse Centre in 2012, continuing its 75-year tradition. Its collection of Victorian-style porcelain dolls and doll's house furniture, from copper cooking utensils to brass doorknobs and wicker furniture, is unrivalled. See bearessentials.ie, woodenheart.ie, dollstore.ie
