A west Cork farmer is making the most of his land’s spectacular setting by running a glamping pods enterprise on the Sheep’s Head Way.
The six accommodation pods are located at the Goats’ Path Road at Glenlough, between Bantry and Ahakista.
Chris O’Sullivan inherited land in the area which attracts a huge amount of visitors every year, from both his parents. His mother came from Switzerland as a child while his father was born and raised in Glenlough, beside Bantry Bay.
“Both farms are in Glenlough, only one mile apart and connected via commonage,” he explained.
“My dad’s home place is north of Glenlough Hill and my mum’s home place is south of the hill. Both are farmed as one farm which is now fully organic, with the pod park on the south of the hill farm.
“We opened all six pods at The Goats’ Path Farm on June 2, 2021 on the day that the government lifted the lockdown. At the moment we open from April 1, full-time. We close on October 1.”
However, the site opens for a few occasions like Halloween and Valentine’s weekend.
“For Valentine’s weekend, my wife Marie set a romantic heart-shaped theme in the pods with heart-shaped cushions, sweets and even loo paper. She baked heart-shaped cup cakes and also threw in a bottle of Prosecco,” Chris said.
“Every year we say we will open for Christmas but we end up enjoying Christmas and the break that we get together. I think as the kids get older, we might start opening at Christmas time,” Chris said.
The response to the pod park, which benefited from LEADER funding has been, Chris said, unbelievable.
“I think this was initially driven by Covid-19 and the new staycation being so popular. As we went into our second season we witnessed a lot of repeat business which we believe has a lot to do with our site and the way we run it as a family,” he said.
“We hit no real major obstacles with the pods, just a few teething problems.”
Some of these, he said, include the rate that grass grows, having to allocate time for maintenance, and how often the rubbish bins have to be emptied.
From near and far
“In the first year it was mainly families and couples from Ireland and some from the UK that stayed in the pods. In the second year we saw a huge increase in guests coming from Europe, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and The Netherlands,” Chris continued.
“The reviews were absolutely fantastic and blew us away. People really seem to appreciate our hard work in creating our park and also the hard work we put in everyday.
“They love the peace and quiet, the views and scenery, the welcome they receive, the facilities, the animals on site and the campfire we light every evening and lots more.
“Kids really enjoy it here. They like the animals, the space, the playground and the fairy forest that we have on-site, as well as our sensory room for kids with autism or who just need a calming space.”
After he took over the farms, he switched from standard beef farming to a focus on rare breeds, Dexter cattle and Valais Blacknose sheep.
“We have also now started to get into the Highland breed. They are a lovely animal and love grazing around trees which provide them with shelter from the rain and also the sun so we thought they might suit our farm as we have had a application for agro-forestry approved and we will be planting in November,” Chris added.
The Valais flock has been increased with lambing in August 2022 and February this year so there are some more additions to our animal family for the pod park.
“Our plans to have a petting zoo open to the public has been put aside for another year.
“It is still my intention to try and add this to our farm, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we have a few other ideas floating around and hopefully everything will all come together in time,” Chris said.
Glamping pods on farms
So what advice would he give to other farmers thinking of going down a similar path?
“I think the best advice I could give someone is to start off small and maybe keep adding bit by bit,” he said.
“Our project was a big one and a big move, which meant a massive spend and huge pressure to get it open.
“Sometimes smaller can be just as good. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted with what we have, but it was tough to get to where we are. A project manager would be another bit of advice. We didn’t have one and that was stressful.
“Also when it’s farm diversification, be aware that this means you are actually diversifying.
“We no longer have breeding cattle, just dry cattle. I never thought we would not be calving on our farm but I found during our first year that it was very difficult to spend more time on the farm, so we got out of calving to free up some time.”