Upwardly mobile: Top camping holidays in Ireland

Love the great outdoors? Jennifer Sheahan offers a personal selection of memorable Irish camping destinations

Rainy days can be hard on campsites. Just ask Jennifer Sheahan's dog Perry, all wrapped up in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry. 

There has been a lot of talk this summer about what it costs to holiday at home; €2,000 per week seems to be the going rate for a house near a beach in Kerry, if you can get one at all. Hotels are scarce and dear, and a fair few seaside ones have closed altogether. 

The argument doing the rounds, made well in these pages and elsewhere in recent weeks, is that Ireland is missing an entire tier of accommodation - hostels, and properly serviced sites for campervans and tents, scattered around the country the way they are across much of the mainland.