The Ten Wonders of Ireland’s West: the Flaggy Shore in Co. Clare

Moonlit clouds pass over Galway city, illuminated by the streetlights below. Above, the stars shine brightly over Galway Bay. The brightest light on the horizon is from the fairground on Salthill Promenade. Picture taken from the Flaggy shore.

In truth, I could have selected any number of beautiful spots along the Clare coastline – anywhere from Ballyvaughan, Fanore to Doolin, you can see what happens when  the flat limestone pavement of the Burren meets the unrelenting power of the Atlantic Ocean. The Flaggy Shore is about half a mile of coastline at Finvarra near New Quay in Co. Clare. The shore itself is most beautiful on an evening when it has just rained but the setting sun has just about managed to break through the clouds. The soft limestone rock, wet from the rain and eroded into fantastic, rounded shapes by the sea, reflects back all of the fantastic colours of the sky.

Th Flaggy Shore is one side of a small peninsula that stretches from the village of New Quay to Finvarra Point, where a Martello Tower still stands.[In this picture, Finvarra is the land on the right handside of the inlet – Knockvorneen is the shrub-covered small hill behind which is the Flaggy Shore. The Martello Tower is barely visible as a dot at the mouth of the inlet – the Google Map link is here]. What makes the Flaggy Shore so special is, of course, the view, and the fact that generally, you have it to yourself. Apart from the rock patterns along the shoreline, it is the skyline that adds to the spectacle – look west and there is nothing to block your view at all. Look north across  Galway Bay and the lights of the city and every village west of it, from Barna to Sipiddal and beyond twinkle back at you. During the day, the ridges of the Twelve Bens and the Maumturks break the skyline.

Just down the road from the Flaggy Shore is Linnane’s Seafood restaurant in New Quay. Everything you can eat in there was caught nearby – fresh from the sea. (If anyone ever organizes a boat trip from Galway where you can have a pre-dinner drink on board, alight at the quay behind Linanne’s in New Quay, have dinner there, and then sail back across the bay to Galway while having a nightcap, let me know – I am totally, ahem, on board for that trip.) Closer still is Mount Vernon Lodge, once the summer home of Lady Gregory and the place where she and a certain W B Yeats came up withe an idea that would become the Abbey Theatre [you can still stay there – it is a guesthouse now]. Yeats namechecks Finvarra [and the nearby Corcomroe Abbey] in his play The Dreaming of the Bones.

This video link [click here] is a timelapse movie of the sun setting, and the stars rising over Galway Bay, viewed from the Flaggy Shore. It is best viewed fullscreen.

Others in the series :-

1) The Ten Wonders of Ireland’s West: Kilmacduagh Round Tower

2) The Ten Wonders of Ireland’s West: Glencoaghan Valley and the Twelve Bens