Mountshannon
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Mountshannon Baile Uí Bheoláin
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| Village | |
 Mountshannon
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| Coordinates: 52°56′N 8°26′W / 52.933°N 8.433°WCoordinates: 52°56′N 8°26′W / 52.933°N 8.433°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Clare |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Urban | 152 |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | R700870 |
Mountshannon (Irish: Baile Uí Bheoláin, meaning "townland of Ó Beoláin", historically anglicised as Ballybolan) is a village in east County Clare, Ireland, and a Catholic parish by the same name. The village is on the western shore of Lough Derg, north of Killaloe. Mountshannon won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1981.
The village was designed and built from scratch by Alexander Woods, a Limerick merchant, who intended it as a purely Protestant settlement from which the surrounding Catholic population would be so impressed by the thrift and industry of the settlers that they would quickly convert to the Reformed Church; even as late as the 1830s there was not a single Catholic resident in the village. In fact the reverse happened - it was the Catholics who colonised the village, and the picturesque Protestant church in a wooded churchyard bears mute testimony to Woods and his scheme.
Mountshannon was home to the last manually operated telephone exchange in Ireland. The exchange was finally converted to automatic service at noon on May 28, 1987.
Mountshannon is an attractive village with 4 pubs, one of which is a hotel, a corner shop/cafe, a restaurant, a garage/shop and a pizzeria.
It is a starting point for visiting the nearby Inis Cealtra, or Holy Island. Now uninhabited, it was once a monastic settlement. It has a fine round tower, and the ruins of several small churches, as well as part of 4 high crosses and a holy well. The cemetery on this island is still in use, the coffins being transported from the Clare side in small boats. There is a stone with a hole in it, through which lovers held hands and promised to be true. Boat trips can be taken from the harbour to the island.
Mountshannon is on the route of the East Clare Way, walking trail.
A recent addition to Mountshannon is the maze built in the centre of town in a small park with views of Lough Derg. The maze features information about the development of the Irish spiritual tradition. Alongside is a picnic area made out of wood carved by local artists, encircled by willow hedging. In the entrance is a stone with a hole facing toward Holy Island. The island can only be viewed by the most penitent by kneeling on a stone in order to view the through the hole. To the rear of the maze is a fine labyrinth consisting of the lawn being cut at different heights, flower beds and hornbeam hedging. It is modelled on the pavement labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France. Mountshannon is a regular winner in the Tidy Towns having won the national prize in 1981, silver in 2004 and numerous bronzes over the years. It most recently took bronze in its population category (2010).
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