The Breesy Centre

Ruth Meade
The Breesy Centre
Cashelard
Ballyshannon
Co. Donegal

Tel: 07198 22925 086 8421330
Email: breesycentre@eircom.net

Website: http://www.breesycentre.com/

If you come here in summer, you might think this is just another hostel, with shared kitchen facilities, dormitory-style rooms with bunkbeds, family rooms, a communal living room and lots of notices telling you to tidy up when you are finished. This is how hostels work and The Breesy Centre is a top quality hostel offering invaluable budget accommodation in one of the most exquisitely beautiful spots in the Donegal hills.

If you come here in winter, however, you will get a better insight into why the Centre exists. Run by the local community of Cashelard, it was created to provide not only an income but also a focal point for the local population, which was dwindling in population but which is now starting to thrive again. You will see this at the barn dance night, yoga classes, or concerts, all of which you are welcome to join if you are spending a night or two here in winter.

Come March, things step up a pace for the tourists. Low carbon activity breaks include hill walking, surfing, horseriding, kayaking and fishing, With 22 lakes within a five mile radius, and two prize beaches at Rossnowlagh and Murvagh, they are not short of locations.

The Breesy Centre runs a tight ship in terms of environmentally-friendly practices. They have a strict recycling system, composting, energy restrictions, and energy-saving lightbulbs. Its new extension, with two additional bedrooms and a small self-catering apartment, has geo-thermal heating and solar panels, aimed at heating ninety per cent of the building's hot water. It all bodes well for the people of Cashelard, as this Centre grows from strength to strength, and is a model example of community-led sustainable tourism.

Written by: Catherine Mack