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What the hell has happened to Kilkee?

Sal Butamol

Absolutely astonished at the state of Kilkee these days. Place is so run down and dead. Very sad to see. So many closed businesses and the ones that are open shut at 6pm (besides pubs)

Place is deserted.

What's going on?

Spent every summer there throughout the 80s and 90s but it is a sad shadow of itself these days.

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fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^

thats a pity liked that place

JCX BXC

fryup wrote: »

the last time i was in kilkee about 4 years back there was a tropical style burger bar at the end of the main st, forget the name...is it still open does anyone know?

Nope it's closed, I forget what it was called but it was beside the greyhound. It moved to a location out the carrigaholt road called "Garvey's", with a shop beside ot. Think the takeaway is gone completely now. The original building is now a cuban style section of the greyhound.

fryup

the last time i was in kilkee about 4 years back there was a tropical style burger bar at the end of the main st, forget the name...is it still open does anyone know?

JCX BXC

godfrey wrote: »

There is definitely some momentum happening in Kilkee, and tons more needs to be done too. Something for families in the evenings would help, whatever that is... And also more accommodation and eating out at reasonable prices.

g

Kilkee Bay Hotel reopening next year.

godfrey

There is definitely some momentum happening in Kilkee, and tons more needs to be done too. Something for families in the evenings would help, whatever that is... And also more accommodation and eating out at reasonable prices.

g

Cookiemunster

drunkmonkey wrote: »

There's over 20 people in the water there all probably tourists and it's only a tiny section of the beach. It's an ok day for surfing https://magicseaweed.com/Lahinch-Beach-Surf-Report/52/

20 people in the water is not buzzing as it's claimed Kilkee should be.

I doubt any seaside town would be busy on a Wednesday when it's pissing rain. Most people take their 2 weeks holiday abroad these days rather than heading to the seaside, which is why most are only really busy at the weekend.

drunkmonkey

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Yeah, just like Lahinch right now :rolleyes: http://www.lahinchsurfshop.com/lahinch-web-cam-271257cm1.html

There's over 20 people in the water there all probably tourists and it's only a tiny section of the beach. It's an ok day for surfing https://magicseaweed.com/Lahinch-Beach-Surf-Report/52/

Cookiemunster

Sal Butamol wrote: »

Watersports alone should mean the place is buzzing.

Instead it's dead

Yeah, just like Lahinch right now :rolleyes: http://www.lahinchsurfshop.com/lahinch-web-cam-271257cm1.html

Sal Butamol

Watersports alone should mean the place is buzzing.

Instead it's dead

Cookiemunster

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Drove through it a while ago, just looked like a complete dump, we go to Lehinch often, wouldn't see any reason to go to Kilkee instead.
The sea front should be buzzing the whole place needs a makeover.

It's Wednesday and it's raining. Kilkee fills up at the weekend. The days of families going down for the whole summer are long gone. And to be honest I don't see Lahinch being any better than Kilkee.

drunkmonkey

Drove through it a while ago, just looked like a complete dump, we go to Lehinch often, wouldn't see any reason to go to Kilkee instead.
The sea front should be buzzing the whole place needs a makeover.

chuckles30

Lynches has been closed for a couple of summers now - lots of building work was done, but no sign of any movement there with the last 12 months or so. Wallys is gone for years - that became the Waterfront back in the Celtic Tiger era.

Sal Butamol

JCX BXC wrote: »

The three?

There used to be three arcades, Lynches, Wally's and the one on the Carrigaholt Road

All of them were closed last week.

JCX BXC

Sal Butamol wrote: »

Where is O'Neills funfair? They three I saw this week were closed

The three?

chuckles30

Sal Butamol wrote: »

Where is O'Neills funfair? They three I saw this week were closed

It's on the Carrigaholt road - just down from the roundabout

Sal Butamol

JCX BXC wrote: »

Alot could be done with Kilkee, yes. An awful lot. No vision whatsoever, but that's the entirety of West Clare. Politics play a massive part in this though. Look at Lahinch, damaged during storm, repaired immediately. Kilkee damaged during the same storm, not repaired for 2 years. Improvements are being made though.

Firstly, there is an arcade. "O'Neills Funfair" is open this year again and it's good to see. I remember earning a nice bit of chocolate there when I was young. Halpins hotel has reopened under the name "Kilkee Town House Hotel", so while not really a full blown hotel it adds to the accomodation available. The Irish house has transformed into a two level café, a new takeaway has opened where Naughtons takeaway used to be, there's a new bar opened (rare to see nowadays, normally they just close), and some minor aesthetic improvements have also come about.

Lots more needs to be done, but at least there's somewhat of a start. Design wise, one would be forgiven for thinking they've walked into the same town they walked into a decade or nearly 2 decades ago. Nothing massive has changed.

Where is O'Neills funfair? They three I saw this week were closed

JCX BXC

Alot could be done with Kilkee, yes. An awful lot. No vision whatsoever, but that's the entirety of West Clare. Politics play a massive part in this though. Look at Lahinch, damaged during storm, repaired immediately. Kilkee damaged during the same storm, not repaired for 2 years. Improvements are being made though.

Firstly, there is an arcade. "O'Neills Funfair" is open this year again and it's good to see. I remember earning a nice bit of chocolate there when I was young. Halpins hotel has reopened under the name "Kilkee Town House Hotel", so while not really a full blown hotel it adds to the accomodation available. The Irish house has transformed into a two level café, a new takeaway has opened where Naughtons takeaway used to be, there's a new bar opened (rare to see nowadays, normally they just close), and some minor aesthetic improvements have also come about.

Lots more needs to be done, but at least there's somewhat of a start. Design wise, one would be forgiven for thinking they've walked into the same town they walked into a decade or nearly 2 decades ago. Nothing massive has changed.

Sal Butamol

The public toilets at the beach ARE DISGUSTING

How much would it cost to put decent public toilets instead of that fancy roundabout near the bandstand?

billybonkers

Bring back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cois_Fharraige

BarryD2

Clareman wrote: »

In my opinion the fact that everyone focused on building summer houses rather than hotels/B&B's in the 90's/00's so now there's no transient visitors, people going to a summer house are more likely to stop in Dunnes/Tesco/Aldi/Lidl rather than eat out or shop local.

Presumably a few landowners in the area had a bit of a windfall then. Problem with windfalls is I guess that they don't sustain.

We were there last year in mid July and the place was hopping, very hard to park but then the weekend was fine and everyone descended.

JPCN1

Stanford wrote: »

Well Failte Ireland put a lot of money into marketing the Wild Atlantic Way but it is for each business to make itself attractive for people to visit

Sorry, but I think County Councils must take a bit of responsibility here. Is running a bathroom in a scenic area beyond them? If so don't put in the same councillors...

Mockba

The place has changed over the years and it is very family orinetated now as in you go there because you have a place of your own.
There isn't any gangs of young people coming for weekends any more , even the August or the june weekends.

Business have closed down but none of them were food shops , even if a lot of people shop in super markets.

One of the reasons for the dereclict buildings is due to there owners being in NAMA. But you can see now for sale signs going up all over th place and these buildings available for sale. SO i think slowly but surely it will get better.

Sal Butamol I think the only differnence between Killkee in the 90's and now is its missing a couple of amusement arcades and you have gotten older.

Gael85

Have been going down to west clare all my life. Usually avoided Kilkee in recent years as place is a dump. Prefer to socialise in the villages of Cross, Kilbaha and Carrigaholt back west. To me a lot of local businesses lack of ambition is holding them back. Go up to North Clare the pub, restaurants and cafes are thriving. With the Wild Atlantic Way there is more people passing through Kilkee than ever. Two issues I would have with Kilkee. 1.There is no proper hotel in town. The Ocean Cove and Kilkee Bay Hotel have never taken off and both are now idle. The Marine was going well for a few years under Matt Rea and is now vacant. 2. It impossible to get a taxi out of Kilkee at night. Nowdays people are not going to chance drink driving.

Stanford

Nor I, they had many good years and still robbed people, people now are realising that a week in the sun is probably cheaper and weather guaranteed

Sal Butamol

Thought the prices in some of the places sheer robbery too.

Thats always been the case though, robbing people for years down there. I don't have much sympathy for the business owners to be honest.

Stanford

Sal Butamol wrote: »

That's true but the facilities there (toilets/showers/etc) are 50 years old or more.

It's a disgrace.

As for the businesses, one family seems to have a stranglehold on the units...

The traders there don't seem to be on the case of Clare Co Co

Sal Butamol

Stanford wrote: »

Well Failte Ireland put a lot of money into marketing the Wild Atlantic Way but it is for each business to make itself attractive for people to visit

That's true but the facilities there (toilets/showers/etc) are 50 years old or more.

It's a disgrace.

As for the businesses, one family seems to have a stranglehold on the units...

Stanford

Sal Butamol wrote: »

Considering all the hullabaloo about the Wild Atlantic Way it is shocking to see such a lack of vision

Well Failte Ireland put a lot of money into marketing the Wild Atlantic Way but it is for each business to make itself attractive for people to visit

Stanford

The people mostly visiting Kilkee now are people who own houses or mobile homes there and so want to get their usage from them, however most them shop for groceries in Kilrush and drink at home in the evening especially if they have kids so the town doesn't benefit that much

c.p.w.g.w

I was only down there a few weeks back and I thought the same, was even going to start a thread.

So many empty/unused units.
No Arcades left

Run down look around the place.

If the weather wasn't as nice, it would be almost depressing