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County Galway · Connacht · An Spidéal

About Spiddal

Spiddal is a town in County Galway, 17 km west of Galway city, with 254 people at the 2022 census. A village named for a medieval leper hospital, on the shore of Galway Bay at the edge of the Gaeltacht, where three in four people speak Irish and the pubs play the music.

Population
254 (2022 census)
Where
17 km from Galway, 203 km from Dublin
Position
53.2441° N, 9.3058° W
In Irish
An Spidéal
On the model
1,721 buildings, 29 streets, 149 places in 47 kinds
Read more
Spiddal on Wikipedia
The 3D model of Spiddal with every named place pinned
The pier at Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland.
The pier at Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland.
User:O'Dea, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Spiddal Pier
Spiddal Pier
Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Beach at Spiddal
Beach at Spiddal
Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Beach at Spiddal
Beach at Spiddal
Ian Capper, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A short history

  1. Middle Ages
    The hospital. An Spidéal comes from ospidéal, from the Anglo-Norman ospitel: a leper hospital stood in West Spiddal.
  2. 1776
    The old chapel. The ruin of a chapel of 1776 stands near the later church.
  3. 1840s
    Famine. Evictions and starvation hit the village hard; after appeals by the parish priest John O'Grady and A.
  4. 1848 to 1850s
    The Bird's Nest. The Irish Church Missions opened the Connemara Orphans' Nursery, for up to ninety children, linked to the Smyly Homes in Dublin.
  5. 1904
    Cill Éinde. The Catholic church of St Enda was built.
  6. 1980s
    Fisherman's Blues. The Waterboys recorded part of the album in Spiddal and later a song called Spring Comes to Spiddal; the television series Ros na Rún is filmed here for TG4.

The full history, 7 moments in order

What to see

  1. The pier and beach

    The harbour the Board of Works improved in the Famine, and the strand beside it.

  2. Cill Éinde27 m

    The church of St Enda, built in 1904, with the chapel ruin of 1776 nearby.

  3. An tSeanmhainistir82 m

    The old monastery ruin in the village.

  4. Máirtín Ó Cadhain256 m

    The memorial to the author of Cré na Cille, the modernist novel in Irish, who came from here.

  5. An Ceardlann

    The craft village east of the centre, where the work is made and sold.

  6. Cnoc Suain5.7 km

    The restored hill village of cottages in the bog 6 km inland.

All the things to see and do

Questions people ask

Where is Spiddal?
In County Galway, in the province of Connacht, in the west of Ireland: 17 km west of Galway city and 203 km west of Dublin, on the R336 coast road, west of Galway.
What is the population of Spiddal?
254 people at the 2022 census.
What is there in Spiddal?
On the map, 149 named places in 47 kinds: 9 places to eat and drink, 12 shops, 5 schools, churches and public buildings, and 100 things to see within 12 km.
What is Spiddal known for?
Its Irish, spoken by three quarters of the village, the summer language colleges, the craft village, the pier and beach on Galway Bay, and Ros na Rún, which is filmed here.

Getting around

Spiddal sits on the R336 coast road, west of Galway. 2 bus stops and 1 car park are on the map.

History, sights and civic facts summarise Wikipedia, "Spiddal" (CC BY-SA 4.0, read 2026-09-19). Population is the CSO census as listed there. Distances and everything on the model are OpenStreetMap.