Milltown Malbay Voyage Tips and guide

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Milltown Malbay (Sráid na Cathrach, "street of the stone ringfort") is a town in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, with a population of 900 in 2022. 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.

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.

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

No taxi based here, but there's one in Lahinch.

• 52.841-9.4321 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 those who made it ashore 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.

• 52.817-9.4562 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. You'll struggle to find much of Tromora Castle near the start of the tidal path to Mutton Island. And it's 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".
• 52.813-9.5243 Mutton Island is tidal. According to the Annals of the Four Masters (compiled in the 1630s), it was severed from the mainland by a huge wave on 16 March 804. It has remains of a 6th-century church and a watchtower from 1702. It lost its population in the 1920s.

• Beach: Spanish Point beach is long and sandy, while two smaller beaches bookend Quilty. They're all exposed to the Atlantic: "Malbay" remember.
• Golf: Spanish Point GC off blue tees is 5387 yards, par 68, visitor round €50.
• 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.
• 52.84-9.2721 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 wheezed back and forth at Moyasta.

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

• The Dolphin on Church Road (top of Main St) does burgers and fish & chips. It's open Su-W 5-9PM, Th-Sa 9:30AM-2PM, 5-10PM.
• Old Bakehouse Restaurant, Main St, Milltown, ☏ +353 65 708 4350. Daily 1-9PM. Good inexpensive food. (updated Mar 2025)

Milltown 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 lashing 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, Milltown V95 C681, ☏ +353 65 708 5883. Su-Th 4-11:30PM, F Sa 4PM-12:30AM. Pub from 1895 with many original fittings, including the sign on the street. Live music at weekends. (updated Mar 2025)
• Cogans Bar & Restaurant, and it's mostly the food that people come for.
• O'Loughlins is a vintage pub, also with restaurant.
• The Forge (aka Players Club) has live music.
• The Westbridge is a small pub and restaurant.
• Clancy's is a no-frills trad pub.
• Michael A's Pub also has rooms.
• Tom Malone's Pub is in the old Market House.

See also the Willie Clancy website (above) for a longer list of B&Bs for the event, that might be available at other times.

• 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.
• 52.8558-9.40111 The Townhouse, Main St, Milltown V95 K1KF, ☏ +353 65 708 5624. Friendly small place in Milltown centre. Double (room only) €100. (updated Mar 2025)
• Spanish Point near the beach is the main strip for B&Bs and small hotels. These include Bellbridge House, Red Cliff Lodge, Coast Lodge and Armada.
• 52.8452-9.43682 Armada Hotel, Spanish Point V95 R883, ☏ +353 65 707 9000. Fresh bright modern hotel with great sea views. B&B double €240. (updated Mar 2025)
• Splurge at Trump Hotel and Golf Resort on the coast south of Quilty towards Doonbeg.

As of March 2025, Milltown and its approach roads have 4G from Three and Vodafone, and 5G from Eir.

• 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.