Qualla: Kilkee

Kilkee: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0. Charlotte Bronte came to Kilkee on her honeymoon in 1854 and walked the cliffs. Tennyson came too. So did Henry Rider Haggard, the novelist who wrote King Solomon's Mines, and the actor Richard Harris - who, before he went to Hollywood, won the local racquetball tournament four years running from 1948 to 1951. In 2006, Russell Crowe unveiled a statue of Harris in the town. Kilkee, on the County Clare coast facing the Atlantic, is the kind of seaside resort that has been a seaside resort long enough to have layers - a horseshoe bay protected by a reef, Victorian terraces along the strand, three churches built in three different decades, and an annual diving competition that lets people fling themselves 13 metres into the open sea.

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Image: Joseph Mischyshyn | CC BY-SA 2.0

Kilkee: Bronte's Honeymoon

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photograph Tobias Helfrich, March 27th, 2004. Modified by Pumbaa, 09:09, 7 April 2006 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0. In the early 19th century, Kilkee was a fishing village. Then in the 1820s, paddle steamers started running from Limerick to Kilrush, and the connecting carriage road brought visitors the last few miles to Kilkee. Catty Fitzgerald opened the first hotel - a single woman running a...

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Image: Photograph Tobias Helfrich, March 27th, 2004. Modified by Pumbaa, 09:09, 7 April 2006 (UTC) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kilkee: The Three Wrecks

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The same Atlantic that drew tourists also killed ships. Three shipwrecks define Kilkee's maritime memory. On 30 January 1836, the Intrinsic, sailing from Liverpool to New Orleans, was blown into a small bay near Bishops Island and broken against the cliffs; all fourteen crew drow...

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Image: Public domain

Kilkee: The Railway and the Song

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NearEMPTiness, CC BY-SA 4.0. The West Clare Railway opened in 1887 and ran trains from Ennis to Kilkee, transforming Kilkee from a difficult day-trip into a weekend destination. The 1890s saw a building boom and a steady stream of dignitaries: Sir Aubrey de Vere the poet, Rider Haggard, Tennyson, the Crown P...

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Image: NearEMPTiness | CC BY-SA 4.0

Kilkee: The Pollock Holes

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0. At low tide, three natural rock pools open up on the Duggerna Reef on the west side of Kilkee Bay - the Pollock Holes. They are deep enough to swim in, big enough that several people can share each one, and fully replenished by every incoming tide with fresh Atlantic water and ma...

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Image: Joseph Mischyshyn | CC BY-SA 2.0

Kilkee: Hell of the West, and a Racquet

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0. The last weekend in June brings the Hell of the West Triathlon - 1,500 metres of swimming, 45 km of cycling, and a 10 km road race - the longest-running triathlon in Ireland. Upwards of 600 athletes compete. In September, when the summer crowds have gone, the Strand Races bring h...

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Image: Joseph Mischyshyn | CC BY-SA 2.0

Kilkee: Blue Flag, Blue Water

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joseph Mischyshyn, CC BY-SA 2.0. Kilkee's beach has held a Blue Flag from the European Commission for water quality and amenity standards for years on end. The town's population sits around 1,000 in winter and swells in summer with the holiday traffic that has been coming since Catty Fitzgerald opened her hotel....

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Image: Joseph Mischyshyn | CC BY-SA 2.0