It can be difficult to find that perfect travel gift for the fanatic in your life, especially if you can't really afford a round the world trip.
Well, worry not. Manchán Magan has a list of the essential gifts you need to get that loved one for the festive season.
1. Thermarest inflatable Mattresses – the finest sleeping mat in the world made in Middleton, Cork and Seattle, Washington. Just using it once a year at Electric Picnic or when sleeping with a sick relative in hospital will repay itself in terms of extra comfort, warmth and sleep-time. Phenomenally durable. My 1979 mat is still perfect. €70. cascadedesigns. John Burroughs a mountaineer. 85 came to Midelton, now also in Bantry for MSR (Mountain Safety Research) snowshoes 100 staff.
2. Ecases allow one use mobile devices in any weather. They make it possible to hold an audible phone conversation in the middle of a gale or cloud burst. By magical osmosis the touchscreen and camera are fully operational through the plastic. Each case is tested to withstand full water submersion. Models for smartphones, tablets, GPS trackers, etc. From €35 www.cascadedesigns.com/ie/e-case
3. Powermonkey Discovery – This tiny aluminium-cased lifesaver will recharge an iPhone twice, standard mobile phones 3-4 times, or give iPods an additional 120 hours playtime. Will also charge e-readers, Sat Navs, laptops, GPS, etc. We all need one at times. €55 www.powertraveller.com
4. Wooden Kayaks – Wild Geese Kayaks in Mullingar make hand-varnished cedar and plywood kayaks allowing you experience the wilds of Ireland in as natural a way as possible. €1,800 wildgeesekayaks.com
5. TURAS Bikes– designed in Ballinasloe, built and painted in Italy. TURAS bikes notched up 22 wins at national and international events in 2013 for the Nicolas Roche Performance Team. See how the Saint Vincent lightweight 7005 alloy frame and carbon fork with Shimano 105 components can cut down your man’s commute time. www.turasbikes.com
6. Float Tubes - A float tube (also known as a belly boat) is a cross between an inflatable swimming ring and a tiny rubber dingy. It allows you float across lakes or rivers like an ungainly swan clad in your warmest insulated chest waders. It looks and sounds ludicrous, but is ridiculous fun and ideal for angling. Southside Angling in Dublin sell float tube, flippers, pump & carry bag for €225 (the official price is £225) www.southsideangling.ie
7. WindPaddles – an ingenious sailing device that attaches to most kayaks, canoes & sit-ons, transforming your humble kayak into a yacht (sort of). Why shouldn’t the paddler be able to harness the power of the wind? Darren’s Kayaks will fit it for you and bring you out on the water to show you how to use it. From €300. www.darrenskayaks.com
8. Seaweed Foraging – Men may no longer bring home the bacon, but why not the kelp, dulse and sea lettuce? They are hardwired to forage; allow them scratch the itch with 3 great seaweed harvesting books: Sally McKenna’s Extreme Greens, Prannie Rhatigan's Irish Seaweed Kitchen, Marie Power’s The Sea Garden. €60 for all three books. … Avoid Amazon by using Kennys Bookshop online which offers free worldwide delivery.
9. Insulated Swimming Cap – instead of a gym membership splash out €14 on a silicon/ neoprene swimming cap and point Him towards the water. We are enviably close to the ocean in Ireland. The Gulf Stream ensures a pleasant 8 degrees in even the coldest months. An insulated cap avoids brain freeze, vigorous swimming will keep the rest of the body warm. He’ll thank you - eventually. From €20
10. Holden Leathergoods – Belts, bags and wallets that are lovingly crafted on the Dingle Peninsula and become more characterful and supple with each year of use. Their simplicity of design and excellence of leather make the expense bearable. The soft Italian leather briefcase is a sobering €535, but the leather wallet will provide just as much tactile pleasure for €98. www.holdenleathergoods.com
11. Sporthouse Bags – This Waterford-based company specialised in making bags for the Irish Army and An Post. While their rucksacks may not have the cachet of Louis Vuiton or Lowe Alpine, the seams, buckles and stitching are as strong as any of them, and they’ll gladly repair a bag you bought from them 20 ago. True travellers trust them with their lives. www.sporthouse.ie/
12. The Tweed Project – Aoibheann McNamara (of hip Galway café, Ard Bia) and Triona Lillis have teamed up to make Irish men’s clothing. Their rustic trousers hand-sewn from cottage-woven Donegal tweed cost an expensive, but acceptable, €250. Their Irish linen shirts hand-sewn in Galway at the same price, seems exorbitant, though the thickness of the linen helps one forget the price shock. www.thetweedproject.com/
13. MIM (Made in Mongolia) Slippers – the cosiest slippers in the world made by a joint Irish-Mongolian non-profit group supported by the Irish Government and the Dalai Lama. The venture empowers woman in Ulaanbaatar and beyond in the wilds of the Gobi desert by blending traditional felt-making skills with Irish-design. €60 www.madeinmongolia.net
14. Lisbeth Mulcahy Scarves – all men should be coaxed into wearing scarves – they banish sore throats and enliven drab overcoats.This Danish-born, Dingle-based weaver useslustrous Merino Lambswool from Italy, Linen from Belfast and soft Alpaca from Peru to create elegant, super-thin snuggle duvets for the throat. €30. http://www.lisbethmulcahy.com
15. Coasteering on Clare Island: 3-hours of sea-jumping, rock-climbing, pot-holing and body surfing along gullies, caves, cracks and different coastal rock formations. Insulated wetsuits, buoyancy aid and white-water helmet ensure one survives intact. €40 www.adventurewest.ie
16. Canyoning through Gap of Dunloe: a one-day adventure ride though the ice-carved canyon of the Gap of Dunloe kayaking through streams, rivers, lakes, gorges, cascades and tracks, using rope and trolley in places. 150m drop over 6km. €90 for an unforgettable adrenalin rush. www.outdoorsireland.com
17. Man Class – an edgy, dynamic 1-day cookery course run by Carmel Somers of Good Things Café in Durrus Co Cork for men who yearn to unleash their inner Gordon Ramsey but were never allowed. Even the most Neanderthal male will be storming the kitchen to cook up dishes like a Man’s Breakfast of roasted prawns, baked eggs and blackened tomatoes. €200 www.thegoodthingscafe.com
18. Rock climbing: Even those incapable of one proper push up magically manage to find the strength in their chest, hips, fingers and thighs to propel themselves up a rock-face. With a rope and harness ensuring safety, the beginner is soon swept up in an exhilaration of potential: reaching for ever more miniscule cracks and crevices. There’s no better way to engage with the Gap of Dunloe, the cliffs of Dingle or a Burren escarpment than scaling its 350 million-year-old flanks. www.outdoorsireland.com
19. Coasteering, Clare Island: If “Mountaineering” is exploring the mountains off the trodden path, guess what Coasteering is? Floppy, splashy fun along our seaweed-bearded coastline. Expect sea-jumping, swimming, rock-climbing, pot-holing and body-surfing along gullies, caves, cracks and different coastal rock formations. It’s a belly-flopping extravaganza of well-organised chaos, a salt-water high for adrenalin junkies. Fear not, you’ll be warmly clad in an insulated wetsuit, a buoyancy aid, helmet and strong footwear. www.adventurewest.ie
20. Canoe the Barrow: 5-days of canoeing along the idyllic Barrow river from Monasterevin, Co Kildare through Carlow to New Ross, Wexford is one of Ireland’s best-kept secrets. This sweeping, chocolate-coloured river is as wild and untrammelled as the Orinoco or the Volga in parts, with only a kingfisher flashing by or an otter hunting salmon. (Return with exotic tales from Athy and other far-flung mythologies.) €109 per person for 5-days camping, or €299 per person staying in B&Bs, (includes two-seat canoe, dry bags, buoyancy jackets, a Kelly kettle and tent -if required). www.gowiththeflow.ie
21. Dry-stone walling - Tibetans have sand mandalas, Bedouins have henna skin-decorating, Aboriginals have dot paintings and we Irish have dry-stone walls - our vernacular artistic expression. For weekend courses contact The Dry Stone Wall Association of Ireland, www.dswai.ie or keep an eye out for regular events led by a master stone mason at Burrenbeo Trust. Learn about stone selection, stacking techniques and tricks to ensure longevity while ensuring the Neolithic farming landscape of the upland Burren is conserved for future generations. www.burrenbeo.com
22. A Mountain Skills Course frees one from the tyranny of the way-marked trail. Learn orientation, compass-bearing and map skills while out trekking in the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, the Wicklow Mountains or the Burren. Soon you’ll have the confidence to roam the Irish uplands unfettered. If only all learning was such fun. www.outdoorsireland.com
23. Kitesurfing involves attaching a vast kite to a tiny surfboard with a 75-foot-long tether and propelling oneself into the mercy of the wind and ocean. It has the reputation of being treacherously dangerous and difficult to master, but Pure Magic Kitesurfing insist it is safe and easy to master if properly taught. A foundation course of four 3-hour sessions in its schools in Clontarf and Achill Island will set you up as an independent rider - you can then hone your skills alone. The 12-hour course costs €395. http://puremagic.ie
24. Ride & Tide: If cantering through Atlantic waves on a deserted beach in a spray of luminous shards of water appeals head to Mayo. And, if it doesn’t, consider your state of mind. Ride & Tide from (the unfortunately named) go!trekking! in Westport consists of a mix of galloping across sands, swimming your horse through shallow water, then transferring to a kayak to reach an island before riding home again. Expertise isn’t required, just joie de vie. www.gotrekking.ie
25. Freediving: While most activity weekends elevate the heartbeat, freediving can drop it by up to half through breathing techniques and yoga awareness. Feargus Callagy of the Irish Apnea Academy teaches people to spend 3 minutes underwater without breathing in the seas off Sligo on his three-day freediving courses, which are pool based in winter with outdoor dives in Mullaghmore in summer. A perfect chance to escape into the total silence of the aqueous depths without oxygen tanks or regulators, just a wetsuit, weight belt, mask, fins and snorkel. www.freediveireland.com
26. Sea-Kayak - The accessibility by kayak of our soul-searingly beautiful coastline is a recent revelation to many of us. Make 2015 the year you learn the proper kayak strokes and rescue manoeuvres. All along the coast outdoor pursuit companies offer training sessions based on the Irish Canoe Union syllabus.
Galway www.kayakmor.ie; Cork www.atlanticseakayaking.com
Dublin http://canoe.ie; Waterford www.ardmoreadventures.ie or www.seapaddling.com
Howth www.shearwaterseakayaking.ie; Galway/Mayo www.irelandwestseakayaking.com
Dun Laoghaire: www.deepblueseakayaking.com
27. Truffle Trees: Johnstown Nurseries in Naas claim that their hazel trees inoculated with the truffle fungus will produce 1kg of truffles within 5 years, not to mention ample hazelnuts too. A kilo of truffles is worth up to €600, and while the Italian White or French Black truffles mightn’t thrive in Ireland the Northern Summer truffle does. €28 http://www.johnstowngardencentre.ie/p/truffle-tree----hazelnut-with-truffle---exclusive-to-johnstown-/truftree
28. Meat on Trees – FruitandNut.ie in Westport, Co Mayo propagate walnut trees, cobnut trees and Spanish Chestnuts that within a few years of planting can provide an entire family’s protein. Andy Wilson has specially developed cultivars suited to the Irish climate. It may no longer be acceptable to go out and kill meat for the family dinner, but a man can still climb a tree to pick nut-meat off the branches. From €30. www.fruitandnut.ie
29. Tutty’s Handmade Shoes –The Tutty’s have been making hand-crafted footwear outside Naas for two generations. Each pair is crafted individually for the user. 720 euros
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