We booked Pops Dream for two nights on our Ireland tour as a quiet place to relax for a while. And the first thing I have to say is: it is soooo beautiful. A romantic, secluded place far away from all hectic. Wonderful. With a tiny exception, I'll explain later.

Before arrival, Barry provided some details on where to find the place which included counting down houses from a certain landmark rather than a specific adress, which I think is wonderful. When a place can't be put in your GPS with street and number, you know it's really as secluded as you want it.

We were met by Barry's father, who is a kind and friendly man and he showed us the features of the house. The kitchen is well equipped, the bathroom was surprinsgly large for such a small house and the living room has cozy sofas. Climbing up to the sleeping matress (or rather climbing down) might be a challenge for some, but we learned later that one of the sofas can be converted to a bed. The terrace that opens on Lough Derg is just stunning. You cannot take your eyes off of this view, the sky and light change frequently, I could sit there all day and enjoy it.

Now if you want to cook, you have a convenience store in Whitegate that has the essentials. If you're fine being creative with what you get that's good. If you have specific plans what to prepare, I'd recommend stopping at a larger market in Scardiff on the way.

We had the perfect romantic evening, actually got engaged on the spot, until about 9 pm. That was when I spotted a spider on the ceiling. It wasn't just a daddy longlegs, those I don't mind, but a larger model. Now at this point I have to mention that we both have arachnophobia and cannot cope with this very well. I went to the house and our hosts were kind enough to come and help us catch it. We are very grateful for their kindness and understanding and helping us. Shortly after, there was another large one on the matress. Again, we very apologetically asked the host to help us and he tried but we couldn't cath the second. He left us the hoover as a defense mechanism, but we did not get much sleep. The next morning, we found a third large one in the kitchen sink.

Now I understand completely that this is a boathouse, in nature, and that this is to be expected and it is basically impossible to keep out spiders. Also I was very happy with the support our hosts provided. So if you don't care about spiders, stay here by all means, it is beautiful.
If you share our phobia, on the other hand, you should stay away, as they can hardly be avoided.

We ended up leaving after the first night and booked another room instead.