BY AILEEN MURPHY

Only six months into a new business venture, and a Belcoo family are celebrating after their caravan park achieved a five star accreditation from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

Having secured this prestigious rating, the Rushin House Caravan Park, owned by Cathal and Brenda O'Dolan, has quickly established itself as a 'must stop' for caravaners touring Ireland.

Rushin Park offers visitors the highest quality facilities. It has space for 25 touring caravans, with electricity and water supply, along with room for 20 tents. All of these have access to a service block which includes a kitchen, laundry, toilets, and free hot shower.

And, it comes all provided in a clean, secure, family run environment which ensures visitors feel welcome from the moment they arrive.

Rushin House, nestled in the natural beauty of Lough MacNean, has plenty to offer visitors. As well as the must-see attractions, such as the Marble Arch Caves and Florence Court House, the hidden gems of the Claddagh Glen and St Patrick's Well are also available to the canny tourist. This is also backed up by the number of quality restaurants, pubs and shops which are available in the area. As Cathal explains, it is these attractions which tourists travel for miles to experience, and which people in Fermanagh often forget are so special.

Although the land at Holywell has been farmed by the O'Dolan family since the 1830's, the move into the tourist field only came in March this year and, judging by the full reservation book, this is likely to be a decision the family will not regret.

Cathal explained the background to diversifying.

"My Dad had plans and permission for a caravan park here years ago. Brenda and I had been working and living in Belfast, I was in the Civil Service and Brenda was a midwife, careers in which we are still involved.

"We came back to Rushin to live some 18 years ago and moved our full-time employment closer to home. There was a family agreement that when dad retired from farming, I would take on the house and farm and that happened in 1994. We always kept cattle and I kept the farm going as we always had done over the generations. I only have 20 suckler cows now and farming such a small area today doesn't give us too many options."

Brenda then explained how they began to consider how they could diversify: "When we pulled out the old plans for the caravan park, we decided to re-apply and drew up new plans in 1999 with early ideas of starting up our dream business."

"This area has so much going for it culturally, historically and for sheer choice of outdoor things to do and places to visit," Cathal stated. "This seemed like the perfect place to attract touring caravans, as dad had originally intended. There is a dearth of touring caravan parks, not only locally, but throughout the whole of Northern Ireland, so we have filled a much needed gap and everyone locally, including our neighbours have been all for it."

The venture opened on the 14th March this year in the cold wind and snow and all of 10 souls braved the conditions to book with the O'Dolans, all of whom have rebooked.

Cathal went on: "All the restaurants and guest houses locally tell us that the numbers of new visitors is increasing each year and we can believe that because we had to turn away 150 people at Easter because we were at full capacity"

Building on the early success of the Park, the O'Dolans recently exhibited at Holiday Trade shows in Dublin and Belfast and, as a result Lough MacNean is quickly becoming a top tourist attraction.

"We received enormous help from Ballyness Caravan Park, near Bushmills and we have forged links with others. We can all help each other, because we complement each others facilities. Touring caravans and campers do just that, they move from place of interest to place of interest and they are always looking for proper caravan sites to cater for their needs".

The O'Dolans have no desire to go down the static caravan route and they don't expect to become too big either, 'because it sort of spoils the friendly, homely atmosphere'. "We are really only custodians of our surroundings, but it would be nice to make a success of what we are doing and do it well.", they agreed.