Lahinch is a small seaside town on Liscannor Bay, on the north-west coast of County Clare. It was a fishing hamlet until the West Clare Railway arrived in 1887 and turned it into a resort, with a promenade, a long sandy strand and, from 1892, a golf club. The railway closed in 1961, but by then a new kind of visitor was turning up: surfers. Today the promenade is lined with surf schools and board-hire shacks, and on a good swell the water off Lahinch Beach is full of wetsuits, even in winter.
The other pilgrims come for the golf. Lahinch Golf Club is one of the great links courses, laid out over the dunes at the north end of town, with the stump of Dough Castle standing on the course. The town's Irish name, Leacht Uí Chonchubhair, "O'Connor's memorial cairn", recalls the local chieftains who held that castle.
Lahinch has only about a thousand residents, and it's a relaxed, unpretentious place, with cafés, a handful of pubs and a leisure centre on the promenade. It makes a good base for this stretch of coast. The Cliffs of Moher are about 10 kilometres north, and you can walk to them from the south along the clifftops from Moher Tower. Liscannor, a small harbour village, is 4 kilometres west, Ennistymon with its river cascades is 4 kilometres inland, and the Burren begins just to the north.
Bus 350 runs along the coast between Galway and Ennis several times a day, stopping at Lahinch, the Cliffs of Moher and Doolin. The nearest railway station is Ennis.