Lahinch

The town

Lahinch — Leath Inse, meaning “half island” or peninsula (An Leacht in Irish, “the memorial cairn of O’Connor”) — is a small town on Liscannor Bay, on the northwest coast of County Clare, Ireland. It lies on the N67 national secondary road, between Milltown Malbay and Ennistymon, roughly 75 kilometres by road southwest of Galway and 68 kilometres northwest of Limerick. The town is a seaside resort and is home to the Lahinch Golf Club, and it has become a popular surfing location — the beach and the swell are the reason the town is known beyond the county.

The name

Lahinch is the anglicised form of Leath Inse, meaning half island or peninsula, and it is not related to Leacht Uí Chonchubhair, which means “O’Connor’s Grave” — the memorial cairn (Leacht) marking the burial place of one of the O’Connor chieftains, who were the ruling clan of the district of Corco Modhruadh Iartharach. The town was recorded by the Annals of the Four Masters as Leith Innse, a variant of the Irish name. The bay is the town: Liscannor Bay sweeps around behind it, and the beach is the point of the trip for the surf.

The position

Lahinch is on the N67 between Milltown Malbay and Ennistymon, and it is the beach town of the Clare coast’s inner bay: the Atlantic swell comes in around the headland, the golf course is above the beach, and the N67 runs behind the town. From it, the road runs west to the Burren country and east to the Shannon estuary. A day out of Lahinch can be the surf, the golf, or the bay walk — the town is the base for all three.

Practical

Lahinch is on the N67 between Milltown Malbay and Ennistymon, roughly 75 km southwest of Galway and 68 km northwest of Limerick; the beach and the golf club are in the town. The surf is best with the right swell and tide — check the conditions before the trip, and the beach works in any settled weather.