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SPANISH POINT

CO. CLARE · IE

Spanish Point
Rinn na Spáinneach, Co. Clare

The Wild Atlantic Way
STOP 05 / 06

Rinn na Spáinneach · Co. Clare

A Blue Flag strand in a horseshoe bay where the Armada drowned in 1588, two and a half kilometres from Miltown Malbay.

Spanish Point is not really a village in the sense of a square and a main street. It is the strand at the seaward edge of Miltown Malbay parish, two and a half kilometres west of the town, on a headland in the horseshoe of Mal Bay. The 2022 census counted 261 people. Most of what is here is the beach, a golf links on the dunes, a hotel, and a scatter of houses that were built as saltwater lodges two centuries ago.

The name is the wound. In September 1588 ships of the Spanish Armada, beaten at Gravelines and trying to run home around the top of Ireland, were driven by storm onto this coast. Two ships went down off the Clare shore with heavy loss of life, and the men who reached land - around three hundred, exhausted and half-drowned - were rounded up and executed by Boetius Clancy, the High Sheriff of Clare. In 2015 historians searching for the wreck of the San Marcos reported finding a mass grave under Spanish Point. Locally the spot is called Tuama na Spáinneach, the Tomb of the Spaniards.

The gentler history is Victorian. Thomas Morony built the Atlantic Hotel here in 1809, with beds for seventy guests and stabling for sixty horses, and for a while it was promoted - generously - as the largest hotel in the British Isles. Sea bathing, seaweed baths, steeplechases on the strand. The hotel limped through the Famine as an auxiliary workhouse, reopened, and finally closed in 1930 when the old clientele stopped coming after independence. The resort instinct survives: people still come here to get into the water.

Use it for what it is - a beach day and a links round on the way down the Wild Atlantic Way. The Armada Hotel sits above the strand and does most of the eating and drinking. Lahinch is fifteen minutes north, Kilkee and Loop Head are south, the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren are a half-hour either way. If you want a pub and a session you drive the few minutes into Miltown Malbay, which is the proper town and has them in numbers.

Population

261 (2022)

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Resort village from the early 1800s; named for the 1588 Armada wrecks

Coords

52.8450° N, 9.4369° W

01 / 09

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The wrecks

Where the Armada came ashore and the survivors were executed.

In September 1588 ships fleeing the Armada were driven onto this coast. Around 300 men crawled ashore half-drowned and were put to death by Boetius Clancy, the High Sheriff of Clare. The headland and the bay carry the memory in the name.

Stories & lore → 02 The strand

A kilometre of Blue Flag sand and a spine of rock.

The beach sits in horseshoe-shaped Mal Bay - over a kilometre of sand with a long reef of rock running out into the swell. It holds a Blue Flag, it has free parking, and it is one of the better-known surf breaks in Clare.

Walks & outings → 03 The neighbour

Miltown Malbay is the town. This is the sea.

Spanish Point is the strand and the resort end of Miltown Malbay parish, two and a half kilometres west of the town itself. You come here for the water and the golf links; you go into Miltown for the pubs and the trad.

Getting here →

02 / 09

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

Johnny Burke's Pub

Above the strand, family-run hotel

Hotel bar at the Armada Hotel

Effectively the pub of Spanish Point, inside the Armada Hotel on the rise above the beach. There is also the Ocean Bar at the hotel for food and a pint with a view of the water. For a proper choice of bars and a trad session you go the few minutes into Miltown Malbay, which has them by the dozen.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
The Armada Hotel	Hotel dining above the strand	€€	The Ocean Bar and Bistro is the main room; the kitchen leans on North Clare meat, vegetables from local farms, Burren smoked salmon and seafood from across the bay. In season the hotel runs outdoor options too - pizza and a coffee-and-catch hatch by the strand. It is the one reliable place to eat in Spanish Point itself.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
The Armada Hotel	Seafront hotel, Spanish Point	The hotel sits right above the Blue Flag strand with the Atlantic out the windows. Family-run, bar and restaurants on site, a popular spot for weddings. Booked well ahead for summer weekends. It is the obvious bed in the village; otherwise Miltown Malbay and Lahinch have B&Bs and self-catering within a few minutes' drive.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

1588, and the rocks did the rest

The Armada and the executions

The Spanish Armada was scattered after Gravelines and tried to escape home the long way, north around Scotland and Ireland. Atlantic storms broke the fleet against the west coast. Off Clare, ships were lost with the loss of hundreds of lives, and the survivors who reached the strand here were in no state to fight. Boetius Clancy, the High Sheriff of Clare, and Sir Turlough O'Brien of Liscannor had them rounded up and put to death - around three hundred men. The place was named for them. In 2015 a team looking for the wreck of the San Marcos said they had located a mass grave beneath Spanish Point; the local name for the burial ground is Tuama na Spáinneach, the Tomb of the Spaniards.

Sea bathing since 1809

The Atlantic Hotel and the saltwater resort

Thomas Morony built Miltown House and divided his estate into the town and the seaside settlement, then put up the Atlantic Hotel in 1809 under a manager called David Anderson. Seventy beds, stabling for sixty horses, tepid baths and seaweed treatments, steeplechase racing on the sand. It was the engine that turned this headland into a Victorian resort - friends of Morony built saltwater lodges along the shore, several of which still stand. The hotel was pressed into service as an auxiliary workhouse during the Famine, reopened in 1854, and closed for good in 1930. The bathing habit it started never quite died.

A Mediterranean Gothic oddity, 1927

Christ Church and the convent

Christ Church, the small Church of Ireland church at Spanish Point, was built in 1927 to a design by William Henry Allen in a style sometimes called Mediterranean Gothic - one of the very few Church of Ireland parish churches put up in the new Irish Free State. A short walk away, Seaview House (built around 1837) was bought by the Sisters of Mercy in 1929, who opened Saint Joseph's convent secondary school there. For a place this small, two distinct strands of early-twentieth-century church history sit side by side.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The strand and the rock spine The full length of the Blue Flag beach and out along the long reef of rock that runs into the bay at the southern end. Shell-hunting at the tide line, serious Atlantic on the rocks. Free parking at the strand. Walk it at low tide and keep an eye on the sea - the rock spine is exposed and the swell here is not gentle.

2 km returndistance

45 mintime

Headland and golf links loop Up onto the dunes behind the beach where Spanish Point Golf Club lays out its nine holes, around the headland and back along the shore road. Big open views across Mal Bay. Stay off the fairways and watch for play.

3 kmdistance

1 hourtime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Clear days, long light on the water, the strand mostly empty. Surf still rolling in.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Beach weather and the surf schools running. The strand and the hotel are busiest now; book a room ahead. The golf links is out most afternoons.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Storm light on the rock spine and the best photography of the year. September is the anniversary month of the Armada wrecks, if you want the history in the right weather.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Raw and fully exposed to the Atlantic. Come for the storm if the storm is the point, but most of the village shuts down to the locals.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a village with amenities

Spanish Point is a strand, a golf links and a hotel. There is no main street of shops and pubs. Miltown Malbay, two and a half kilometres east, is the town - that is where the pubs, the food and the trad are.

Swimming off the rock spine

The reef and the rocky northern end of the beach are unforgiving and the swell is strong. Stay on the marked sandy stretch, which is lifeguarded in season and holds its Blue Flag for a reason.

Looking for the Atlantic Hotel

The grand Victorian hotel that built the resort closed in 1930 and is long gone. The Armada Hotel is the modern seafront hotel; do not arrive expecting the seventy-bed steeplechase palace of 1809.

Getting there.

By car

From Ennis take the N85 to Inagh, then the N67 to Miltown Malbay, and turn off the few kilometres west to Spanish Point - about 45 minutes. Lahinch is 15 minutes north on the N67; Kilkee and the road to Loop Head run south. Free parking at the strand.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 333 (Ennis to Kilkee) serves Miltown Malbay and Spanish Point. TFI Local Link also runs services in West Clare linking Miltown Malbay to Ennis and the surrounding villages. Frequencies are rural, so check the timetable before you rely on it.

By train

No rail. The old West Clare Railway closed in 1961. The nearest station is Ennis, on the line to Limerick, about 45 minutes away by road.