€3.5m Ring of Kerry activity and adventure centre is fit for purpose

It's sunny side out for Greek Cypriot Athos Tsiopani's Eclipse Centre in Kerry. It has trained some of Ireland's Fittest Families, challenged top rugby teams, hosts school groups as well as hosting activity-based stag and hen parties

Eclipse Centre is on 90 acres of  Co  Kerry heaven

NATURE was generous when it provided the setting for Eclipse Centre, a well-established year-round activity and adventure centre and holiday complex.

Set off the Ring of Kerry, it's edged by a river and ringed by the MacGillicuddy Reeks, and has provided ‘behind the scenes’ training facilities for TV programmes like Ireland’s Fittest Family and Operation Transformation.

Blue-sky thinking: founder Athos Tsiopani realised his dream

Set up after Greek Cypriot Athos Tsiopani, his wife Anita and their three young sons arrived in Ireland from Bristol in the UK in the 1990s, the Eclipse Centre is a busy complex with residential facilities, on 90 acres on Kerry’s Blackwater River, a mile or so off the Ring of Kerry Road between golden holiday hotspots Kenmare and Sneem.

It’s now for sale, just listed with estate agent Dominic Daly, who pitches it at existing activity centre operators elsewhere in the country, at businesses in the broader hospitality sector, at outdoor activity experts and others, and as a training base for sports bodies.

Complex includes a number of buildings and facilities

The wilderness centre has facilities for up to 20 outdoor activities and challenges on site, and has a three-acre lake created beside the Blackwater which flows to Kenmare Harbour.

Facilities include five purpose-built two and three-bed holiday homes, main six-bed 40s sq metre private residence overlooking the lake with its own/second entrance, 11 stables, 40x20metre all-weather arena with crumbed rubber surface, catering kitchen, conference/meeting rooms, shower blocks, covered BBQ, activity and meeting areas and several other multi-purpose sheds/barns and structure, and even a treehouse.

Five holiday homes in the mix

Planning was previously granted for a large hall with a climbing wall and frames and other indoor challenges, but that has now lapsed.

Activities on site include assault courses, Goliath’s Garden, archery, biking, bog run and mud surfing, team challenges, raft building, kayaking, and off-site activities on larger waterways in the catchment (via mini-bus0 include coasteering, plus there are full equestrian facilities on site.

Auctioneer Dominic Daly guides at excess €3/3.5 million, describing it as very successful complex done to a high standard, and with top five-star rating on sites like Tripadvisor.

Eclipse Centre caters for all ages, from families to fitness fanatics

It has been used by primary and secondary school, family groups, holiday makers and sports bodies and teams from across a number of codes, including some of Ireland’s top rugby clubs.

Eclipse Centre also regularly runs groups for stag and hen parties, either staying on-site or in various hotels in Kerry and using the facilities on a day basis.

Founder Athos Tsiopani is a former athlete across a range of disciplines, served briefly in his 20s in the Territorial Army in the UK as a commissioned officer, owned a very successful restaurant business in Bristol, and sought a career shift when his sons – now all aged in their 30s - were young.

Private home is 405 sq metres, designed by DOD architects Kenmare

Having been at the forefront of a fun and fitness business start-up and delivery, he and his wife Anita are now seeking to step back from such a full-on lifestyle having, he says, “lived the dream I had, back in the 1990s.”

Oh, and Athos has one more ‘dream’ a new operator might want to pick up on: ‘Ireland’s Fittest Team,’ a notion where teams from various sports from rugby to GAA, soccer, hockey and even clubs with individual members, from rowing to martial arts, competed over a series of gruelling challenges.

DETAILS: Dominic Daly 021-4277399