Picnics Of Ireland

Location: Lough Gur

Wednesday 1st July, 2020

We love Lough Gur. Located between Bruff and Limerick City, it’s a site with history, nooks, crannies, woodland and wildlife that is best visited early in the day.

There’s a large car park for visitors, the Heritage Centre with information and tea and coffee if you forget your thermos, toilets and several short walks through the woodland. There’s a nice map on the Lough Gur website, which you can visit here: https://loughgur.com/tree-fairy-trail/

Taking a stroll along the lake to the north east will take you to a path leading up the hill. Follow this up and after a few minutes, you’ll get a breathtaking view of the lake. The lake is said to be home to Gearoid Earla who was banished, along with his castle to the bottom of the lake! He only rises to the surface every seven years, when he can ride his horse upon the lake water until dawn! You can learn more about Lough Gur’s folklore here: https://loughgur.com/folklore-booklet/

There is a bench up here where you can take a little rest, and there’s a small fairy trail behind you on the hill.

We love visiting Lough Gur early in the morning, when the birds are waking and chatting, and the mist is rolling off the water. A family of swans patrol the shore, and the picnic benches are likely to be empty before 7am! The area in front of the lake gets very busy in the middle of the day and in the early evening, if it is sunny. This has its own charm too- the sounds of children playing, families picnicking and couples chatting.

There’s a second picnic area in the wooded area, off the path, to the left of the lake. This has wide open spaces good for families, but unfortunately, there’s no view of the lake from here.

On our last visit we came well prepared, and arrived at around half six in the morning. We had a large thermos with tea, pancakes cooked that morning with lashings of Lorge Chocolate Hazelnut spread (Benoit Lorge uses hazelnut and cocoa oils instead of palm oil, and it tastes amazing) and a couple of Supervalu frozen croissant baked that morning while the pancakes were frying. We may have had a little too much – the pancakes weren’t all eaten until a lot later in the day, and despite a vigorous walk, we were still pretty stuffed by the time we left!

We hope you enjoy a visit to Lough Gur some day soon!

Happy picnicking from Mary & Dave!

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