We spent a wonderful week in Steph's cottage and were enticed to stay a little longer when we were forced to spontaneously change our travel plans on the last day. Steph herself was very welcoming, friendly and helpful but never intrusive.

The cottage itself was much bigger than you would imagine from the pictures, and well equipped - I know many homes that aren't nearly that cozy. The peat oven and friendly cat Smudge certainly increased that factor :)

We had no problem finding our way around (following Steph's very detailed instructions - I can also only suggest anybody who has an iPad to bring it along, it helped us navigate in places where no GPS or map would help). I thought I would struggle to spend a week here but could easily have stayed much longer (that really says a lot, we're city girls through and through - I consider anywhere that's further than a 10 min walk from a bus stop/train station 'remote' ;))

Staying in East Clare was a great eye opener of how there are part of Ireland that are still virtually unspoilt by the mass tourism that can grip hold of the island in the summer season. That said, getting anywhere within Clare and Galway was easy and the surrounding area and Lough Derg are worth a visit/walk to!