Hobby holidays

LEISURELY LEARNING: Use your holiday time to pick up a new skill, writes SANDRA O'CONNELL

IN A TIME of national stress it’s worth recognising that anxieties can rise to the surface if you sit still for too long. Unfortunately that includes holidays. The best way to relax therefore is to be doing something, which is why it might be high time you considered a hobby.

GO POTTY

Newforge House in Armagh, a Georgian country house, has teamed up with award winning Ballydougan Pottery, to create a short break that’s long on creativity. This residential package includes a tour of the pottery, followed by a one-and-a-half hour lesson with a trained potter. The session begins with a crash course in techniques, including throwing, followed by a chance for you to get your hands dirty creating your own work of art. Pick your best two attempts and they’ll be expertly glazed and fired, ready for you to bring home with you.

The two-night BB deal, including dinner and a picnic basket to enjoy in nearby Lurgan Park on the second day, costs £250 (€295) per person sharing. See newforgehouse.com

LASHINGS OF LACE

Lace making is something we’ve always been good at in this country and if it’s something you haven’t yet attempted now might be a good time to start because in October, Traditional Lacemakers of Ireland is hosting a seven-day lace and craft cruise around the Canary Islands.

The event, which is surely the perfect vehicle for a tragi-comedy starring Julie Walters, starts with a flight to Malaga before cruising to Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote, where guest on board will spend a day with local lace-makers.

The cruise is open to all, whether members of the organisation or not. Classes for beginners run on the first Saturday of every month in Cork, so you've plenty of time to hone your skills. See traditionallaceireland.com

HISTORIC HOLIDAYS

It's a thin line between being a history buff and being a history bore, but at least in like-minded company you can be as pedantic and nit-picking about dates, people and proclivities as you like, without discovering you've also cleared a room. The first World War is having a moment right now, what with the success of the movie War Horseand Now All Roads Lead to France, the Edward Thomas biography.

Irish company The Travel Department has a three-day escorted tour to Belgium and France led by Erwin Ureel, a former Belgian army officer and a local battlefield expert.

Participants will take in the battlefield sites of Ypres and the Somme and the trip includes visits to a range of museums and war memorials.

It costs €439 per person and departs May 3rd. See thetraveldepartment.ie

SOUL OF A SMITHY

Enniscoe Country Estate is on the shores of Lough Conn, near Crossmolina, Co Mayo. The 18th century house is surrounded by parkland leading down to the lakeshore, while an old, stonebuilt farmyard behind it has been converted into a heritage centre – entered via a walled garden.

It’s a beautiful spot just to visit, but for added value, sign up for its Forging Links blacksmithing courses, dedicated to developing skills in this ancient craft.

Led by resident blacksmith Colin Highfield, who undertakes commissions and restoration works, to date more than 70 people have participated in his one- and two-week courses. There are three forges and six anvils and spaces are limited to six participants, so it’s very hands-on.

Prices vary, but participants can avail of a discounted rate of €400 a week in one of Enniscoe's self-catering houses nearby. See enniscoe.com

GARDEN THE GULF STREAM

The award-winning gardens at Cashel House Hotel in Connemara are warmed by the Gulf Stream, and have all the exotic flowers and ferns to prove it. Well-stocked with benches too, for rest and reflection, it even has its own organic herb garden, fertilised using a mixture of seaweed and what the hotel describes as “a few secret ingredients”.

Whatever they’re using, it is certainly working and if you want to find out for yourself, book into to one of its residential gardening courses.

These are available in two- and three-day versions, including workshops on planting and pruning, garden design and restoration, as well as vegetable, herb and fruit growing.

A full-board two-day gardening package costs €299. See cashel-house-hotel.com

SAIL AWAY

Flotilla holidays are the perfect way to enjoy an independent sailing holiday with the security of having someone on hand who really does know the ropes. They’re also very sociable, as you make your way from quaint port to quainter harbour by day, and spend the evenings talking about how exactly you did it with all the other crews.

Sunsail, sold in Ireland through Sunway, invented the flotilla concept in 1974 and still has the widest range of destinations, with a choice of 26 routes available across the Med, the Caribbean and around the UK, graded from easy to challenging.

Having a lead boat crew to rely on also means you get the skinny on all the best places to visit on shore.

All levels of experience are welcome and, if you don’t have enough people in your party to crew a vessel on your own, they can team you up with others in the, eh, same boat.

A one-week flotilla in the British Virgin Islands next month costs £1,299 (€1,530)pp, based on four sharing, inclusive of UK flights. See sunsail.com

COOK UP A STEAM

If you fancy brushing up on your culinary skills check out Tasting Places, the cookery holiday specialist offering gourmet options from France to Thailand.

One of the best places to start is Italy which, it turns out, isn’t only about pasta and pizza.

Arezzo Fattoria Montelucci is a family-run country house set in splendid isolation high in the Tuscan hills, where the cooking is a mixture of “sophisticated Florentine dishes of the Renaissance, mingled with the rustic simplicity of country food”. That’ll be the pasta and pizza then. Tasting Places’ guests have exclusive use of the house, which is run as a hotel the rest of the year, with a terrific pool and views out over woods, olive groves and vineyards.

As well as the cookery classes, there is a chance to tour the local food markets, sightsee in Siena or simply walk in the surrounding hills.

A week's cookery holiday here in June costs £1,950 (€2,342), with a £200 (€236) single supplement if you go it alone. See tastingplaces.com

SNAP A SHOT

If one of the things you love most about travel is the opportunity it affords for photography, or if you’re just fed up giving the people you love demon red eyes, you might want to check in to The Inn at Ballilogue Clochán.

The self-styled "boutique farmhouse" – a term so good it can't be long until every farm BB in the country appropriates it – is indeed the epitome of style, way more Vogue Interiorsthan Farmers Journal.

As if that weren’t reason enough to go, at selected dates throughout the year, it runs photography workshops hosted by award winning photographer Mark McCall.

A full-day masterclass including lunch, plus a night’s BB for two costs €295.

See kilkennycountryretreat.com

A WINE CRUISE ON A SAIL BOAT

The way some people talk about wine is insufferable, making you want to talk about coffee with equal intensity just to shut them up. Yet even the most resolute teetotaller – or indifferent drunk – would be willing to put up with 49 utter wine bores for this holiday, and in a confined space to boot.

Each year Arblaster Clarke, the champagne of wine tour companies, runs a small ship wine cruise. This year’s travels from Rome to Nice, via Amalfi, Corsica, Elba and St Tropez.

There’ll be wines from wherever you’re visiting during dinner, at which you’ll be joined by winemakers, plus various talks and tastings from professionals along the way.

The cruise costs from £5,000 (€5,900) per person, and the real star of the show is not the wine, but the boat.

The Sea Cloudis an authentic square-rigger built in 1931 for an American heiress – at the time it was the largest private yacht ever built. It has four magnificent masts supporting 29 sails which, when fully unfurled (manually, of course) look simply glorious. In fact, it looks just like the label of a bottle of Cutty Sark, not that you'd say it here. See winetours.co.uk

TAKE A SEAT

Upholstery makes for a very genteel hobby, one which gives rise to any number of enjoyable outings to markets and auction houses, looking for suitable projects. On a more practical level it means when the kids have bounced the legs of their beds, you’ll know how to fix them.

Old Chairs is an antiques restoration business owned by Pepie O’Sullivan and Nigel Barnes and based in Kilrush, Co Clare which, throughout the year, runs upholstery courses for beginners. These won’t turn you into a skilled craftsperson in a couple of days, but will give you the confidence to tackle small jobs on your own.

Numbers are limited to five, so you get very intensive instruction and, to get the best value from it, they advise you to bring a project of your own with you to work on.

Topics covered include antique identification, cane work, chair restoration, French polishing, veneer repairs, wood turning and woodwork repairs. A weekend course costs €175 including lunch and any materials used.

Accommodation is available in the couple's home, Clooneenagh House, for an additional €35 a night, for which you'll get breakfast and dinner too. See oldchairs.ie