Canvassing opinion on a great way to holiday

MANY years ago at one of the earliest Lisdoonvarna music festivals as hundreds of us busily erected our tents for the weekend, an old farmer leaning on a gate neatly summed up the scene: “No doubt about it, there’s a lot of scope for sin and scandal underneath that auld canvas.”

Given that the vast majority of us were aged somewhere between 18 and 25 at the time, he probably wasn’t all that wide of the mark. Regardless of whether your thing is the Electric Picnic or a family adventure in the wilds of Connemara, camping remains an activity with an appeal for all ages.

In this less than glorious summer of 2011, the urge to commune with the great outdoors continues on a steady upward arc as a new generation discover the joys of planting that groundsheet, pegging those guy ropes and unfolding their own little home from home in some of Ireland’s best beauty spots.