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About

About Owenea River Rest: A Family's Journey

Owenea River Rest is a family run business on Francis and Deirdre Connolly’s farm in Ardara, County Donegal. Deirdre explains how their dream became a reality. But it doesn’t stop there… big plans for the future mean you’ll want to come back time and time again.

The local area offers so much history, heritage, adventure and scenery, you’ll never fit it all in one visit.

From experiencing stays in on a Jungle raft on River Kwai in Thailand, to a Mud hut in Peru, an authentic log cabin in Canadian Rockies to a Windmill in Norfolk ……. over the years Francis and I shared an affinity and passion for staying in alternative accommodations. When our two children Dylan and Kate came along, as a family we shared numerous camping and glamping experiences. It was during these trips we first developed the thought that perhaps one day our family could host our very own Glamping getaway outside the vibrant village of Ardara, West Donegal. When the new type of “luxury camping” i.e. glamping culture took off we decided that now was perhaps the perfect time to realise our dream of hosting our very own glamping site on our small family sheep farm in Ardara, Co Donegal. For some time we had been looking at some element of diversification to our farm. As we are fortunate enough to have panoramic views of the Bluestack Mountains together with an undisturbed view of Owenea River and estuary we realised we were in fact in the perfect location here in Tullycleave to open up our very own Glamping Site – Ardara’s first Glamping Site which we named “Owenea River Rest” so named as the “Owenea River” runs at the bottom of our farm. It is just a 6 minute walk to access it from the site, giving walkers and hikers a beautiful ramble along this slow moving waterway with an array of colourful wild flowers dotted along its river banks.

Thus our journey finally began in October 2019 when Francis, Deirdre , Dylan and Kate came together with lots of exciting ideas and dreams of what our Glamping Site could look like.  We shared so much fun and enjoyment in coming together and putting all our individual ideas and plans together and we sincerely hope we that we have somehow managed to add even a “little magic and intrigue” to our guests visiting our glamping site.

Our Dreams going forward...

This is a two phased project.  We are hoping in the future to:- 
 
  • Build our very own custom built tree house which will offer even more spectacular views of the Owenea River and the rolling Bluestack Mountains
  • To a feature an authentic Mongolian Yurt commonly called a Ger which is a traditional dwelling of nomadic families in Mongolia, Asia.
  • A  Finnish Aurora Dome. These Aurora Domes are circular in their shape, echoing the traditional design of an igloo but taking things to a whole new level which offers visitors a chance to view the spectacular outdoors from the comforts of being indoors.  
Our Ultimate Dream is to one day appear in the website of “Alistair Sawaday” who was a renowned travel writer for the Irish Times.  Over the past 25 years he has built this truly magical website featuring accommodations around the world  from Castles to  country Inns  to rustic cottages to hobbit huts.  This website, in my opinion, is the most truly comprehensive and exciting travel website the world has to offer as there is something to catch the imagination of every traveller’s dreams so thus our ultimate dream is to one day feature “Owenea River Rest” as a place to stay in the stunning County of Donegal.   

This project is supported by: Donegal LCDC, Donegal Local Development CLG, Donegal County Council and the Department of Rural & Community Development through grant aid received under The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development in Ireland 2014- 2020 “Europe investing in rural areas”

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