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Author Topic: Round Lake  (Read 9107 times)

Margaret

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Round Lake
« on: June 12, 2018 »

 Just had our first ever family camping trip to Round Lake. 

For those who might be interested, the site has several advantages and a couple of disadvantages.

The Good:
Lovely pitches set amongst the trees, face away from the road at it easy to imagine yourself in deeply wooded area.

Excellent fishing, though maybe not so much if you want to eat the fish. My son caught several roach, most of these were quite small, but then they only do catch and release anyway. There is a wee house with a porch around it, which has a tv room, the toilets and showers. You can sit on the porch and see the fish, they will all come up if you throw a bit of bread in and they did see a pike, who ate one of the smaller fish, but never caught any.

There is a pleasant walk around the lake, a small playground and all sorts of nearby activities. My oldest son rented a mountain bike and had a wonderful time. The youngest wasn't quite big enough but will bring his own next time, and he had a great time with a nearby ponytrek at forest stables.

99.9% of the locals were extremely friendly and helpful.

The toilets and shower are modern and very clean.

The price very reasonable, only 12.50 a night for all 4 of us.

The Bad ... well slightly

The toilets are quite a walk from the pitches. We ended up using the wee shed with chemical disposal loo rather than struggle with the distance. Well it would be a struggle for me as I have mobility issues. The boys are just lazy. I would have preferred a no toilet campsite, but only in a less populated area.

The wee house can be used by groups, though the church group who was using it when we were there was a plus, not a negative. It did make the place very crowded for awhile, and even without that, there can be a lot.of people using the play park, walking their dogs and so on. The camping area is not fenced so a few people just let their dogs go charging through, or loose to do their business, though this does seem to be cleaned frequently.....either that or it gets buried in leaves and I didn't see it.  Most people seem to respect your privacy, but a couple of children were racing back and forth right through our dinner area, around the tents and guy lines and so on. On the night the church had a woman end only run their were a few single men I doubt were local, some blasting Loud and horrible music, and one the next day who spent quite some time just standing in a Bush staring. But for 95% of the time it was very peaceful.

The thing that looks like a light switch in the disabled toilet is actually a power supply for the shower. If the last person to use it left the taps on, and you turn it on, you get quite a shock. Well it is kind of funny looking back on it, and it was hot enough I didn't mind getting a bit wet :)

The Ugly

As we were leaving a large number of teenagers came in with a lot of drink for a big party on the porch surrounding the wee house. They didn't seem to thrilled to have outsiders in their party spot, and a couple were pretty rude, but then they were young and very very drunk. Had this been at a different time it would have bothered me more, but we were leaving anyway so no worries.

Overall,

I will certainly use the place again, though perhaps not once the schools are out. I can see where it might get a bit rough over the summer, but the parks dept that runs the place is extremely helpful and left a number with us to call for any problems.

If anyone is interested I will try to post some photos later. If I can get them off my husband's phone :)

And we are certainly going camping again. Even my oldest, who normally looks like his life support has been disconnected when he is taken away from his pc had a wonderful time. Funny how a campfire gets the family all talking, and we had stories at night. I had downloaded a film to watch on my tablet at night, but by the time they were done with fires, night walks and stories everyone was too tired for electronics :)
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RedLeader

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Re: Round Lake
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2018 »

Sounds fun, where is Round Lake?
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Margaret

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Re: Round Lake
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2018 »

It is about 1/2 mile outside of Fivemiletown.
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RedLeader

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Re: Round Lake
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2018 »

Strange them letting crowds of kids come and drink, campsites are usually pretty quick to shut that sort of thing down and usually bar big groups of kids altogether.
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whoRya

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Re: Round Lake
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2018 »

That's a great review.  Thanks for sharing.  I do like getting camping with the family, but there is only so much time.  We've had a weekend in Portrush and have a weekend in Benone and a fortnight in France booked. 
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"Not all those who wander are lost."

Margaret

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Re: Round Lake
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2018 »

Just local kids and it is a combination public park and campsite. Obviously someone could just call the police if they wanted to, as they were most definitely well underage,  But they weren't enough of a nuisance for me to do that,  though if one drowned later I would have felt very guilty. I had to resist the urge to say something as I am quite certain it wouldn't have done any good and I imagine they have done it many times before but being drunk and swimming isn't very wise a d most especially in natural water sources... at least in a pool it easier to see someone and pull them out.

But being connected to the park, and having the toilets and showers on the park side open to all is the one major draw back for the site. Seperate toilets  and perhaps some fencing would be a huge improvement .  The entire area is open to the public, so you have a lot of people who aren't camping through. But the vast majority were very nice, and some offered us directions to various places and suggestions for places to visit.
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Margaret

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Re: Round Lake
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2018 »

WhoRya, any great recommendations for family friendly campsites here? We are basically limited to Northern Ireland, might be able to try a camp down South, but I find  extremely long drives difficult as well. We are always looking for places as quiet as possible, with a bit of space to ourselves, and early nights.

It would be fun to meet up with other families with similar interests as well. My boys are 9 - almost 10 and 13.
The youngest is really into scouting, outdoor skills, fishing, animals ( especially his dog )and nature, though he does like computers as well... games are for when you can't play outside. The oldest prefers his video games, built his own computer and might die if disconnected from the net too long and moans that we won't bring his parrot camping (it hates to travel and if it got out would never come back), but for all that he didn't want to leave, and he does love mountain biking, archery and building fires. We are into making fires without matches. It would be grand for them to find other children to do things with when camping.

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