Milltown Malbay

Milltown Malbay (Sráid na Cathrach, "street of the stone ringfort") is a town in County Clare in Ireland. Also spelled "Miltown", it's best known for its traditional Irish music, with a week-long summer festival. 5 km west is the headland and beach of Spanish Point, with Atlantic surf - and "Malbay" means treacherous bay, as the Spanish discovered.

The town grew up from 1800 and witnessed shocking scenes of famine, ruthless landlordism, reprisals, and murderous conflict around the struggle for Irish independence. So it's a tribute to the grand spirit of local people that the term "Milltown Massacre" simply refers to a 1979 drubbing of Clare Gaelic Football team by Kerry.

Get in

Bus Éireann 333 runs from Ennis via Corofin, Lemenagh Castle, Kilfenora, Ennistymon and Lahinch, taking 80 min to Milltown Malbay, and continuing south to Spanish Point, Quilty, Doonbeg and Kilkee. There are four M-Sa and two on Sunday. On Tuesdays only, one bus continues from Doonbeg to Kilrush.

Get around

From town to beach is 5 km, so you need wheels.

See

• 1 Spanish Point is the headland and bay west of town, where in 1588 lookouts watched the Spanish Armada trying to limp home. Winds and the Gulf Stream had pushed the fleet much closer to shore than intended, so San Marcos was wrecked at Quilty, and San Esteban further south at Doonbeg; all the survivors were put to death by the county sheriff. Seven other ships found shelter in the Shannon off Kilrush and their crews got home.

Spanish Point today is an assembly of hotels, a secondary school, caravan parks and restaurants. Spanish Point beach is a fine beach.

• 2 Quilty (Coillte, "woods") is a small fishing village with a beach. The church has a round tower in ancient style but it was built to mark the 1907 rescue of the crew of Leon XIII, wrecked on the rocks: the villagers put to sea in stormy waters in frail open boats. Mutton Island is tidal, with remains of a 6th-century church and Napoleonic-era watchtower. You'll struggle to find much of Tromora Castle on the mainland near the start of the tidal path. It's perhaps best to draw a veil over the events that led Nabokov, in the novel Lolita, to name the nemesis of anti-hero Humbert Humbert as "Clare Quilty".

Do

• Willie Clancy Summer School / Scoil Samhraidh is a traditional Irish music masterclass held over a week in July. Willie Clancy (1918-1973) played the Irish uilleann pipes, flute and tin whistle, and his best-known work is the selection of reels "The Old Bush / The Ravelled Hank of Yarn." The school, held since 1973, draws accomplished musicians from across Ireland and beyond, plus a large audience, so town is jam-packed when it's on. Performances are in pubs and back rooms up and down Main Street.
• 1 Slieve Callan is a mountain of 391 m (1283 ft) that can be hiked from trails off the Ennis Road southeast of town, though it's boggy and the trails are indistinct. There are two ancient megaliths, but a carved "ogham stone" found in the 18th century turned out to be fake. The mountain gives its name to the narrow-gauge steam locomotive that still wheezes back and forth at Moyasta.

Buy

Milltown main street

• SuperValu is the town supermarket on Ennis Rd, open daily 8AM-9PM.

Eat

• The Dolphin on Church Road (top of Main St) does burgers and fish n' chips. Open M-Sa 4PM-midnight, Su 5-11PM.
• The Yard Ennistymon Rd is a cafe that in 2019 re-launched as a bistro, gets good reviews. It's open W-Su 12:30-9:30PM.

Drink

The town pubs have suffered the same decline as elsewhere in the country. Sure in the height of summer the place is heaving with boisterous crowds, but out of season with the rain coming in off the Atlantic, it might be a very quiet pint indeed. The pubs are in a strip along Main Street, from south to north:

• Friel's Pub (but the sign still says Lynch, and always will), The Square. M-Th 6PM-midnight, F Sa 6PM-1AM, Su 2PM-midnight. Pub from 1895 with many original fittings, including the sign on the street. Live music Th-Sa in winter and W-Su in summer. (updated May 2020)
• Cogans Bar & Restaurant, and it's mostly the food that people come for.
• O'Loughlins is a vintage pub, also with restaurant.
• The Players Club has live music.
• The Westbridge is a small pub and restaurant.
• Michael A's Bar is open Su-F 2PM-12:30AM, Sa noon-11:30.
• Tom Malone's Market House may have closed.
• Clancy's is a no-frills trad pub.
• Cleary's is where Main Street turns the corner into Ennistymon Rd. Cosy trad pub. Hennessy's next door has closed.

Sleep

Spanish Point

• Camping and Caravans: Lahiffs (+353 65 708 4006) is on the lane R482 north of Spanish Point. A little further north, Spanish Point Camping is expensive for what you get. Beware that some maps show Cluain Uillin as a campsite 1 km southwest of Milltown Malbay, but there's nothing there, never was.
• 1 Central Hostel (Kelly's), Main Street, ☏ +353 65 708 4754. Has hostel dorms and private rooms with B&B. Fairly basic and it can be noisy, but it beats camping in this rain-lashed region. Dorm €20 ppn, rooms from €30. (updated May 2020)
• Another B&B in town is The Townhouse (+353 65 708 5624), and An Gleann (+353 65 708 4281) a km southeast down Ennis Road gets good reviews.
• Spanish Point near the beach is the main strip for B&Bs and small hotels. Those in business in 2020 are Bellbridge House, Red Cliff Lodge, Coast Lodge, Spanish Point House, Armada (see below), and Southwind.
• 2 Armada Hotel, Spanish Point, Milltown Malbay, ☏ +353 65 707 9000. Fresh bright modern hotel with great sea views. B&B double €200. (updated May 2020)
• Splurge at Trump Hotel and Golf Resort on the coast south of Quilty towards Doonbeg.

Connect

As of July 2020, you'll manage a mobile call and maybe even 4G in Milltown from Eir and Vodafone, but there's no signal from Three.

Go next

• The coast road northeast leads to Lahinch, the Cliffs of Moher, Doolin for boats to the Aran Islands, and the strange landscape of The Burren.
• Southwest the road leads to Kilkee and the cliffs of Loop Head.
• Head inland to bucolic Ennis, Clare's county town ringed by old abbeys.