IDYLLIC: The view from our Bed and Breakfast in Achill.

Achill — Yes, it is an island!

FEW people around these parts have not been to Achill Island at some stage in their lives. It was a rite of passage for many young people who were allowed to go camping there by parents who reckoned it was a good destination — far enough away to feel adventurous, but close enough to home in case anything went wrong.

What usually went wrong was the weather. I remember one family holiday when the family was left there from Sunday night to Wednesday, two weeks in a row, while I commuted from Tuam. I think there was a staff shortage in the paper; at any rate, every time I drove to or from the island, it was raining, had been raining, or was about to rain.

They are philosophical about the weather on this, Ireland’s largest island, barely off the coast of Mayo. They have no choice. As one hotelier told me, “The tourists come when the sun shines and leave when it rains.”

But Achill can be magic when the weather is good. My first camping trip there was on one of those balmy Bank Holiday weekends when the sun does what it is supposed to do, and beamed down on the campsite at Keel and the extraordinarily beautiful beach at Keem.

And when we spent two nights there at the beginning of June, the blue skies and fluffy white clouds made for perfect postcard-style photos.

Read the full feature in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald, on sale in local shops or buy the digital edition here