Family breaks in Cork: Biking in the Ballyhouras and discovering Doneraile House

An action-packed family road trip in the Hidden Heartlands ticks all the boxes for Esther N McCarthy 

The Ballyhoura Mountains

When you live in the country’s largest county (suck it, Dublin), where you go on holidays as a child can determine your ramblings as you get to the age where you can drive yourself when you fancy taking off on a weekend skite.

For us, it was always west Cork — we spent our summers with our aunties in the caravan park in Owenahincha, and in a family’s old farmhouse when they built their more modern one in Red Strand, long before AirBnB was even invented.