Clifden eco Beach Campsite & Caravan Park Connemara

An exceptionally lovely campsite with exceptional views. It even has its own private beach!
Met by Kris, we were shown around the site while he pointed out all the services and amenities available to us. He personally showed us three separate sheltered spots to pitch our tent on, as he was taking into account the bad wind that was forecast.
The layout is not uniform, there are no marked out pitch areas, there are rolling sand dunes. It’s a dream to be honest. After a few years of camping in the resorts of the UK, it was refreshing to be allowed to pitch up any where you wanted.
Another bonus, camp fires! Well, camp pits anyway, which saved the ground being scorched. For 10 EUR you got a cement stand, a half a Guinness beer barrel to put on it and a barrel was full of kindling, wood and some eco fire-​lighters. The charge is actually 20 EUR, but you got 10 EUR back the next day when you returned the fire pit back to reception. Actons treat campers like the adults they are by allowing camp fires. It adds so so much to the camping experience allowing camp fires.
Alas on this visit the bad weather forecast was very bad in the end for us. The first night was find, high winds and some rain. Nothing we hadn’t experienced before. But on the following afternoon our tent was structurally damaged beyond repair by the gale force winds and we had to abandon the camping for the moment. We took down our damaged tented and packed up. We didn’t get to try the private beach or the turquoise waters of the sea. I would love to make a return visit to Clifden eco Beach Campsite & Caravan Park to make full use of all the amenities it has to offer.
We paid for three nights, 20 EUR per night for the one tent, one car and two people. But as we only stayed one night before our tent was banjaxed, Kris kindly refunded us 40 EUR.
One thing to note is the place is also know as Actons Beachside Camping and when you arrive the sign will say Actons, but wait! You are at the right place. We actually did a U turn we were so unsure, but then decided to stay as it was such a nice place. But as it turned out it was the Clifden eco Beach Campsite and Caravan Park after all.
I didn’t get to use the showers so I cannot comment on how long they last for the 1 EUR charge. But the toilets were grand. Clean.