cankita
Free Member
Just came back from touring Ireland and one of the places we wanted to visit was the Giant's Causeway which is 'owned' by the National Trust. For those who don't know you can walk to the Giant's Causeway free of charge IF you can find somewhere to park within walking distance. There used to be a reasonably priced car park but now the NT have built a totally unnecessary visitor centre at a cost of £8 million and if you want to park there you have to pay the full admission price of £9 per adult even if you don't want to go into the visitor centre! If you just want to buy a cup of coffee in their cafe you still have to pay the full admission price!
There is a parking alternative a few hundred yards down the road at The Bushmills Railway where you can park for the day for £6 and that is what we intended to do. We arrived just after 9am but found that the railway car park was closed so, rather reluctantly, we felt we had no choice but to be ripped off for 27 quids worth of parking. We drove into the huge car park which was totally empty save for one car and a motorhome. The duty jobsworth comes up and asks "Are you members?". "No" I reply to which he responds "Well we don't allow motorhomes to park here unless you are National Trust members". He went on to explain that if you have a motorhome and are not NT members then you have to drive 3 miles back to Bushmills and take the free courtesy bus to the visitor centre. You then get £2 off the admission price to somewhere you didn't want to visit in the first place!
WHAT??? What possible rationale is there for such a stupid policy? They have a huge car park there with single bays in which most motorhomes would fit easily, so what does being a NT member do? Does it suddenly shrink the size of your motorhome? Or somehow make it invisible?
I can't for the life of me understand the reasoning behind such a crass policy. If 50 NT members all turn up in motorhomes they can all park there for free but if one non-member wants to park a motorhome for a few hours in an otherwise empty car park - and pay £27 for the privilege - they can't!
We never got to see the Giant's Causeway (it was a crap day anyway so not a great loss) and the National Trust lost out on £27 so who wins there? If the National Trust think this kind of policy will encourage membership then they are sadly wrong. I doubt if I'll ever visit another National Trust property let alone join up.
There is a parking alternative a few hundred yards down the road at The Bushmills Railway where you can park for the day for £6 and that is what we intended to do. We arrived just after 9am but found that the railway car park was closed so, rather reluctantly, we felt we had no choice but to be ripped off for 27 quids worth of parking. We drove into the huge car park which was totally empty save for one car and a motorhome. The duty jobsworth comes up and asks "Are you members?". "No" I reply to which he responds "Well we don't allow motorhomes to park here unless you are National Trust members". He went on to explain that if you have a motorhome and are not NT members then you have to drive 3 miles back to Bushmills and take the free courtesy bus to the visitor centre. You then get £2 off the admission price to somewhere you didn't want to visit in the first place!
WHAT??? What possible rationale is there for such a stupid policy? They have a huge car park there with single bays in which most motorhomes would fit easily, so what does being a NT member do? Does it suddenly shrink the size of your motorhome? Or somehow make it invisible?
I can't for the life of me understand the reasoning behind such a crass policy. If 50 NT members all turn up in motorhomes they can all park there for free but if one non-member wants to park a motorhome for a few hours in an otherwise empty car park - and pay £27 for the privilege - they can't!
We never got to see the Giant's Causeway (it was a crap day anyway so not a great loss) and the National Trust lost out on £27 so who wins there? If the National Trust think this kind of policy will encourage membership then they are sadly wrong. I doubt if I'll ever visit another National Trust property let alone join up.