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I have returned in one piece from a weekend away boating on the Shannon. We decided to go away for the weekend for Mrs Ben’s birthday so 6 of us booked a cruiser from Emerald Star in Carrick On Shannon.

Very reasonably priced with an over all price of 800 euro (ish) split 6 ways which for the type of holiday I felt was great value. We certainly were not disappointed with the cruiser itself, it was a An Elegance 43 foot boat with 3 cabins, all ensuite with a large living room space with very reasonable kitchenette (I’ve seen smaller in people’s apartments!) and lounging area on the top of the boat.

After receiving our 15 minute instruction on how to operate the boat we were foot loose and fancy free, cue opening of beers and this pretty much summed up the weekend. The beauty of boating is that the constant change of scenary and if you don’t like a particular place you just hoist up the ropes and away you go!

We stopped in some nice villages with really nice Irish Pubs, Drumsna being our first port of call, a small Leitrim village with 2 small pubs, the kind of pubs that you make your own craic and where people look at you funny when you walk in and will eyeball you for a good hour before they realise that you’re not here to rob their jobs or their women.

The boating itself was seemless and you wouldn’t realise you were on a boat at all. It was as comfortable as a hotel with heating , microwave and telly. The cabins were spacious and once you grasped the toilet / shower which was more than adequte you had it mastered!

On the last night we stopped off in a village north of Carrick called Cootehall. This town which is essentially a church and two pubs has been heavily developed with new housing estates that are unoccupied. We headed up to the local pub to see what mischief we could raise and were caught in a complete snow blizzard. When we entered the pub which was populated by the owner and two locals and made our way to the back of the pub the owner’s face lit up and he went through and started setting up the fire to be lit. We stayed drinking here until the owner turned off most of the lights and just headed up stairs and wished us a good night!

We made our way back to the boat and there was about 3 inches of snow covering everything. We got back on the boat and had a night cap and then decided it was no better time than this to make a snowman!

We headed back to Carrick On Shannon and left the boat off and headed home after thoroughly enjoying the weekend. I would definitely do this type of holiday again and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

Link (Emerald Star)

(proof of snowman)

It’s not tea in the mug