Ennistymon or Ennistimon (Irish: Inis Díomáin) is a country market town in County Clare, near the west coast of Ireland. The River Inagh, with its small rapids known as the Cascades, runs through the town, behind the main street. A bridge across the river leads to nearby Lahinch, on the N67 national secondary road. The town is connected to Ennis by the N85, continuing the settlement's main street.

Quick Facts Inis Díomáin, Country ...

Ennistymon Inis Díomáin
Town
Ennistymon Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°56′N 9°17′W
Country	Ireland
Province	Munster
County	County Clare
Population  (2016)
• Urban	1,045
Time zone	UTC+0 (WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-1 (IST (WEST))
Irish Grid Reference	R134877

Close

The town's official name is Ennistimon, although Ennistymon is the spelling most widely used.^[1] Historically, it was spelt Inishdymon.^[1] This is believed to derive from Inis Diomáin meaning "Diomán's island".^[1][2] However, Míchéal Ó Raghallaigh argues that the name is derived from Inis Tí Méan meaning "island of the middle house" or "river meadow of the middle house".^[3]

Ennistymon is located on the border of the upland area of County Clare known as the Burren. The Cullenagh River is called Inagh after the Ennistymon cascades, at which point it becomes tidal.^{[4]: 53–5}

Ennistymon grew from just three cabins in 1775 to 120 houses in 1810 (70 of which were slated). The oldest part of town is the narrow street near the bridge. A Christian Brothers Monastery, Mount St. Joseph's, was established in 1824.^{[4]: 54, 56}

Shops in Ennistymon include a SuperValu supermarket, an Aldi supermarket, two bookshops, several art galleries, a bakery, several hairdressers, a butcher, a hardware shop, a print shop, dry cleaners, launderette, builders' suppliers, several cafés and restaurants. In addition to The Falls Hotel, and a number of B&Bs, there are also several pubs which host Irish traditional musicians.

Ennistymon has two primary schools: Scoil Mhainchin/Ennistymon National School and what began as Mol an Oige Steiner School.^[8] Mol an Oige National School became the first Steiner method school in Ireland to be given permanent recognition as a national school, granted in 2015 by the Department of Education.^[9] Patronage of Mol an Óige Steiner National School was transferred on 1 September 2019 to the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board and it became Mol an Óige Community National School (CNS) in 2019.^[10]

Scoil Mhainchin was formed as an amalgamation of the CBS Primary School and The Convent of Mercy National School.

There are also three secondary schools in the town: Ennistymon CBS, which is the only all-boys school in the county, the Vocational School and Scoil Mhuire.^[11][12][13] Plans are in place to amalgamate these three schools.^[14]

• Kootenay Brown (by birth John George Brown), Irish-Canadian polymath, soldier, trader and conservation advocate
• Martin Conway, Irish Fine Gael politician
• Marie Davenport, Irish former female long-distance runner
• John Philip Holland, Irish engineer and inventor of the submarine; attended C.B.S. Secondary School Ennistymon
• Seamus Mac Cruitín, Irish poet and bard
• Steve Wall, Irish musician and actor
• Brian Merriman, Irish language poet and teacher (a statue of him stands outside St Andrew's church)
• William O'Brien, 2nd Marquess of Thomond, Irish peer
• William Rynne, Irish Republican who fought in the 1916 Rising

Ennistymon is twinned with:

• Pozzoleone, Italy
• Schimatari, Greece