By Emma Ryan
AN AREA of Burtonport that has been completely transformed by the regeneration of an historic building and an overgrown lake to develop glamping pods is providing a much needed boost for the seaside village.
The Wheelhouse Pods, owned by John Reilly, is one of Donegal’s newest glamping sites and one that is aiming to breathe some life back into Burtonport.
Complemented by the Wheelhouse Cafe, the new lakeside glamping development opened to the public last month and has quickly become a success.
The site at the crossroads at the entrance into Burtonport has come a long way since John first bought the building from the Colls, it was a shed.
“Where we have the kitchen now, that was a labour room in the early 1900s and during the winter time, the women from the island used to come here and stay incase they got trapped with weather so there is a lot of history here.
“I have spent a lot of time traveling the world fishing and it would kill me when I came home and there was nowhere on a Saturday or a Sunday morning to get food or a fry-up so that’s where the idea came from for the cafe,” said John.
John was born in Scotland but his mother was from Rutland Island and his father was from Belmullet in Mayo, and the family moved here when he was 10 years old.
Following in his father, grandfather’s and uncle’s footsteps, John started fishing out of Burtonport when he was 16.
At that time, Burtonport was a booming town and it was the biggest salmon port in Europe.
“It was a massive port and there would have been 30 or 40 boats fishing out of here. There used to be six bars, but now there is only two.
“During the early ‘90s, the town hit a decline – the fishing declined and the whole town went with it including the factories.
“It was difficult to see the town like this and I knew Arranmore had not reached its full potential so I thought if people were traveling there, they could stop with us to eat and I thought there was an opening there,” said John.
Since the Wheelhouse Cafe opened, it has been going from strength to strength and is busy with tourists but John said the local people are his bread and butter.
He said he saw a gap in the market for accommodation facilities and decided to develop the site with nine glamping pods.
“Burtonport never serviced people to stay. We do have the odd B&B here but we never had a central location and it was just passing trade. I thought about getting heads on pillows and thought the pods might get people to stay here and then they will go to other businesses in the area too.
“We had actors and actresses staying while they were filming a movie in the area so in the evening they were going to the bars in the town or the hotels in Dungloe.
“So we are not trying to take all of the cake but we are giving them a central location to go from,” said John.
With a helping hand from his son Kamen, John brought the idea of his glamping site to life in just over a year – planning for the pods took nine months while the construction took five months.
The work included having to clear the site of overgrown plants and rocks.
The lakeside site has been fully developed to a high standard with a car park, laundry room and three of the pods come with a hot tub. The pods were delivered to the site and took just 30 minutes to connect to the facilities.
During the construction, a stunning lake, called Coll’s Lake or La Ceanna Loch was uncovered to be seen by many local residents for the first time.
The lake has a dam on one side and is also home to eels and trout.
“Surprisingly, 80 per cent of the people in the locality never knew there was a lake there because it couldn’t be seen because it was all overgrown.
“Looking back on the pods from a year ago, it was so rough and overgrown so we had to strim a pathway down to the site.
“At the start, I took my son’s kayak down and went on the lake to see what was actually out there.
“We had a woman in her late seventies who has lived in the town her whole life came down for the opening recently and she said she had never seen the lake before. Now people see how nice Burtonport is and can be, so maybe now another businessman will come in with another idea and develop something else.
“Hopefully now it will be ping pong down to the port now and we will see lots of opportunities coming up for Burtonport,” said John.
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